Name, founding and origin

Sexton Ming, Tracey Emin, Charles Thomson, Billy Childish and musician Russell Wilkinson at the Rochester Adult Education Centre to record The Medway Poets LP, 11 December 1987.

The name Stuckism was coined in January 1999 by Charles Thomson in response to a poem recited to him several times by Billy Childish, who records in it that his former girlfriend, Tracey Emin had said he was “stuck! stuck! stuck!” with his art, poetry and music. Later that month, Thomson approached Childish with a view to co-founding an art painting techniques group called Stuckism, which Childish agreed to; on the basis that Thomson would do the work for the group, as Childish already had a full schedule.

There were ten other founding members: Philip Absolon, Frances Castle, Sheila Clark, Eamon Everall, Ella Guru, Wolf Howard, Bill Lewis,Sanchia Lewis (who joined during the first show in September and is no relation to Bill Lewis), Joe Machine, Sexton Ming, and Charles Williams. The membership had been evolved over the previous twenty-five years through creative collaborations: the group was promoted as artists, but members continued to work in various media, including poetry, fiction, performance, photography, film and music, as well as painting techniques.

In 1979, Thomson, Childish, Bill Lewis and Ming had been in The Medway Poets performance group, to which Absolon and Sanchia Lewis had also contributed. Peter Waite’s Rochester Pottery staged a series of solo painting shows. In 1982, TVS broadcast a documentary on the poets. That year, Emin, then a fashion student, and Childish started a relationship; her writing was edited by Bill Lewis, printed by Thomson and published by Childish. Group members brought out dozens of publications. The poetry group dispersed after two years, reconvening in 1987 to record The Medway Poets LP. Clark, Howard and Machine became involved over the following years. Thomson got to know Williams, who was a local art student and whose girlfriend was a friend of Emin; Thomson also met Everall. During the foundation of the group, Ming brought in his girlfriend, Guru, who in turn invited Castle.