M A R T I N T O M L I N S O N
Originally from Blackburn, I nurtured my interest in socio-realism / theatre performance through the attendance of local youth theatre groups and the studying of Edward Bond, Jerzy Grotowski and Antonin Artaud.
After moving to London in 1997, I got involved with the burgeoning artist-run spaces in London’s east end including Five Years Gallery, Vomit in the Mainstream and the Foundry, run by the anti-art K Foundation.
Within this context, together with guitarist Patrick Constable, I formed the “art-music” performance project ‘SELFISH C**T’ (SC).
The band’s initial performances (2003), mostly in squats and art galleries, quickly developed an underground following of queers, punks and artists, alongside some substantial attention from the British press.
Personally picked by NME as one of the ‘rock stars of the decade’ and described by Time Out as ‘the closest thing to Iggy Pop’, Vice Magazine named SC the best live act in England.
The band was extensively featured in various music, art and fashion publications such as I-d magazine, The guardian, The Observer, ArtWorld Magazine, Dazed and confused, Grey magazine and Vogue.
With the addition of artist Matthew Saw on bass and writer Joao Pires on drums, the band went on to release a series of albums and singles and had been signed to Horseglue records, Sparrow’s tears records, 51 records in Japan and the art and music label LoveHowlMuse.
Incorporating live video projections, together with artist 241247, we toured extensively across the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan. We played international festivals, music venues and galleries and were featured artists in the Frieze Art Fair (2005) and the Istanbul Art Fair (2008). We played the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank centre as the opening act of Jarvis Cocker’s curation of Meltdown (2006) and at one of the opening events of La Gaite Lyrique in Paris (2011).
I steered SC along a course that straddled both art and music and regarded the live interaction of video projection and audience provocation as essential to the agit-punk politics of performance.
Selfish C**t’s final performance was at SO36, Berlin in 2011.
Further developing the cut-up and live editing, I have collaborated with the artist Dario Vigorito (241247) on audio visual performances in which video projections and live and recorded sound interact in a form of narrative violence. We performed in London, Paris, Berlin, Fribourg and New York as the 'AEKNOWN' collective between 2012 and 2015.
As a professional performer, I was employed by Station House Opera for the telematic performance ‘DISSOLVED’ at Beaconsfield Gallery (2014), by Artist/ Choreographer Nissa Nishikawa for the live piece ‘AMANNAZOTHA’ at the October Gallery (2015) and by visual artist Simon Martin in the art film 'UR FEELING' INSTALLED at The Camden Arts centre (2106).
In 2017, I had been cast by American film Director John Cameron Mitchell in the movie 'HOW TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES' from a short story of the same name by cult author Neil Gaiman. For this project, I also wrote and performed five songs for the original motion picture soundtrack, released by Sony records in 2018.
After caring for my father for an alcohol related illness, up until his death in 2018, I’ve been forging a new path in my artistic experimentation and practice, focusing on movement and performance as a transformative act for personal healing and a potential instrument for social change. For this reason, I’ve begun to stage workshops in various locations across London, including a weekly movement workshop at the British Red Cross’s destitution centre in London and a series of free events for low income artists and performers at the South Bank centre.
