Cold War Steve is the
pen name of Christopher Spencer, a British
collage artist and
satirist
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Under Contemporary, 1930-196 ...
. He is the creator of the
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
fee
@coldwarsteve His work typically depicts a grim, dystopian location in England populated by British media figures, celebrities, and politicians, usually with ''
EastEnders'' actor
Steve McFadden (in character as
Phil Mitchell
Phil Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Steve McFadden. He was introduced to the soap opera on 20 February 1990 and was followed by his brother Grant Mitchell (EastEnders), Grant (Ross Kemp), s ...
) looking on in disgust. His work has been described as having "captured the mood of Brexit Britain" and has been likened to that of earlier British political satirists
Hogarth and
Gillray
James Gillray (13 August 1756Gillray, James and Draper Hill (1966). ''Fashionable contrasts''. Phaidon. p. 8.Baptism register for Fetter Lane (Moravian) confirms birth as 13 August 1756, baptism 17 August 1756 1June 1815) was a British caricatur ...
.
As of September 2021, his Twitter account has over 345,000 followers.
Early life
Spencer was born in Birmingham in 1975. He went to art college at
Nuneaton in Warwickshire, where his fellow students included
film director Gareth Edwards
Sir Gareth Owen Edwards CBE (born 12 July 1947) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played scrum-half and has been described by the BBC as "arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey".
In 2003, in a poll of international ...
. He then failed to get into three different universities and subsequently spent the next twenty years working a series of mundane jobs in factories and the public sector. Recovering after an attempted suicide, Spencer concentrated on his art, creating montages on his phone, often while travelling to work by bus.
Work
''McFadden's Cold War'' (the original title of the page) first appeared on Twitter in March 2016. As the title suggested, the work initially concentrated on the
Cold War era, inserting Steve McFadden into photographs from the period often featuring
Ronald Reagan or
Mikhail Gorbachev. The
EU referendum
This is a list of referendums related to the European Union, or referendums related to the European Communities, which were predecessors of the European Union. Since 1972, a total of 48 referendums have been held by EU member states, candidate st ...
in June 2016 was a watershed in his career and led to his work taking on a more
surreal
Surreal may refer to:
*Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art
* "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki
* ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze
*Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor
...
tone. Speaking in December 2018 he said "rather than dealing with it as I've done in the past – which would have been drink or drugs or whatever – I channelled it more into my art. I incorporated other characters, so it's slowly become more satirical and political."
The work expanded to include politicians such as
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabi ...
,
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
, and
Kim Jong-un in incongruous settings such as a run-down British
working men's club
Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class ...
or a derelict
flytipping
Illegal dumping, also called fly dumping or fly tipping ( UK), is the dumping of waste illegally instead of using an authorized method such as curbside collection or using an authorized rubbish dump. It is the illegal deposit of any waste onto ...
site, alongside British celebrities such as
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds (born 22 December 1948) is an English television presenter, radio DJ, writer, producer, and businessman. Edmonds first became known as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg before moving to BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presente ...
,
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
,
Danny Dyer
Danial John Dyer (born 24 July 1977) is an English actor and presenter. Dyer's breakthrough role was as Moff in ''Human Traffic'', with other notable roles as Mick Carter in EastEnders, Billy the Limpet in '' Mean Machine'' and as Tommy Johns ...
or
Cilla Black. McFadden is the one constant in his montages.
He held his first exhibition ''A Brief History of the World (1953–2018)'' at The Social in London between October and December 2018.
The show was attended by comedian
Al Murray
Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gre ...
and ''Guardian'' cartoonist
Martin Rowson
Martin Rowson ( ; born 15 February 1959) is a British editorial cartoonist and writer. His genre is political satire and his style is scathing and graphic. He characterises his work as "visual journalism". His cartoons appear frequently in ''The ...
.
In November 2018 his first public work, ''The Fourth Estate,'' commissioned by RRU News, was unveiled in
Williamson Square
Williamson Square is in the city centre of Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by populati ...
in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
. The work measuring is inspired by the third panel of
Hieronymus Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/ Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on o ...
's ''
The Garden of Earthly Delights
''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' is the modern title given to a triptych oil painting on oak panel painted by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch, between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between 40 and 60 years old. It has b ...
''.
Other large scale outdoor artwork followed at
Glastonbury 2019 (a collaboration with
Led By Donkeys) and a piece for the
National Galleries of Scotland ''
'Harold, The Ghost of Lost Futures'
'' as part of their ''
'Cut and Paste exhibition which also featured work by
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...
,
Peter Blake,
Joan Miró,
Hannah Höch
Hannah Höch (; 1 November 1889 – 31 May 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage, or fotomontage, is a type of collage in which the p ...
and
John Heartfield
John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a 20th century German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements. ...
.
In 2019, Cold War Steve published two books with
Thames & Hudson: ''The Festival of Brexit'' in March, followed by ''A Prat's Progress'' in October. A pamphlet of the early work titled ''McFadden's Cold War'' also appeared via Rough Trade Books. A third book ''Journal of the Plague Year'' was published by Thames & Hudson in October 2021.
Cold War Steve released several limited artworks and jigsaws from 2019 onwards. In October 2020, his ''Hellscape Jigsaw'' was nominated for the
Design Museum's
Beazley Designs of the Year prize. ''Harold'', ''Trumpscape'', ''2020'', ''Bluebells'' and ''Benny's Babbies'' all followed in the jigsaw series.
Other works have appeared in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
and ''
The Big Issue
''The Big Issue'' is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or individ ...
''. He designed the front cover for the 17 June 2019 issue of ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' and on the summer 2022 edition of the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
''.
In 2020, Cold War Steve featured in a documentary about his work titled ''Cold War Steve Meets The Outside World,'' directed by
Kieran Evans
Kieran John Evans (born 8 February 1969) is a Welsh film director and screenwriter whose work includes music videos, film and documentaries. His 2012 film '' Kelly + Victor'', produced by Janine Marmot, saw Evans awarded the BAFTA Award for Ou ...
and commissioned and broadcast by
Sky Arts
Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music (such as opera perfor ...
. The film followed Chris as he put up four large scale outdoor artworks in
Medway, Liverpool, Coventry and Bournemouth. The film was shortlisted for the 2021
Grierson Documentary Awards and the exhibition was nominated for the 2021
South Bank Awards.
Publications
* ''The Festival of Brexit'' (London:
Thames & Hudson, 2019)
* ''McFadden’s Cold War'' (Rough Trade Books, 2019) RTB32
* ''A Prat’s Progress'' (London:Thames & Hudson, 2019)
*''Journal of the Plague Year'' (London:Thames & Hudson, 2021)
Exhibitions
*''A Brief History of the World (1953–2018),'' The Social, London, 15 October 2018 – 31 December 2018
[
*''A Brief History of the World (1953–2018),'' Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, 17 January – 17 February 2019
*''Cruel Britannia'' – Cold War Steve and Jason Williamson (]Sleaford Mods
Sleaford Mods are an English post-punk music duo, formed in 2007 in Nottingham. The band features vocalist Jason Williamson and, since 2012, musician Andrew Fearn. They are known for their abrasive, minimalist musical style and embittered explo ...
), Disgraceland, Middlesbrough, 8 March 2019 – 16 March 2019
*''You, Me & Cold War Steve – The International Exhibition of the People,'' various locations worldwide, 1 May 2020 – 1 April 2020
*''You, Me & Cold War Steve – The International Exhibition of the People 2021, various locations worldwide, 30 Aug 2021 – 31 Oct 2021''
References
External links
Cold War Steve Twitter
*
{{Authority control
Living people
British satirists
Collage artists
1975 births
Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands