Editing David Mach

{{Short description|Scottish sculptor and installation artist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2018}}
[[File:David Mach 2023.jpg|thumb|David Mach - ''Heavy Metal'' at Pangolin, London, 2023]]
[[File:"The Big Heids" - geograph.org.uk - 617712.jpg|thumb|''Big Heids'', Lanarkshire, a tribute to the  steel industry]]
[[File:David Mach's "Out of Order" in Kingston upon Thames (03).jpg|thumb|''Out of Order'' (1989)]]
'''David Mach''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|RA}} (born 18 March 1956) is a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[sculpture|sculptor]] and installation artist.<ref name="RA">{{cite web|url=http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/academicians/sculptors/david-mach-ra,114,AR.html |title=David Mach RA |access-date=2010-01-13 |publisher=[[Royal Academy]] }}</ref> His artistic style is based on flowing assemblages of mass-produced [[found art|objects]]. Typically these include magazines, vicious teddy bears, newspapers, car tyres, match sticks and coat hangers. Many of his installations are temporary and constructed in public spaces.

==Early life==
Mach was born in 1956 in [[Methil, Fife]].<ref name="RA"/> Mach studied at [[Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design]] (now a school of [[University of Dundee]]), [[Dundee]], [[Scotland]] from 1974, graduating in 1979,<ref name="RA"/> then at the [[Royal College of Art]], [[London]] between 1979 and 1982.<ref name="RA"/> Following several shows and public installations, Mach was nominated for the [[Turner Prize]] in 1988. Mach was elected Member of the [[Royal Academy of Arts]] in 1998,<ref name="NG">{{cite web|url= https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/david-mach |title=David Mach Scottish |work= nationalgalleries.org |access-date=August 14, 2023}}</ref> and was appointed Professor of Sculpture in 2000.<ref name="RA"/>

==Work==
<!-- [[File:David Mach Adding Fuel to the Fire.jpg|thumb|right|200px|One of David Mach's magazine pieces, ''Adding Fuel to the Fire'', installation in [[Barcelona]].]] -->
One example of his early magazine pieces, ''Adding Fuel to the Fire'', was an [[installation art|installation]] assembled from an old truck and several cars surrounded and subsumed by about 100 tons of magazines, individually arranged to create the impression that the vehicles were being caught in an explosion of flames and billowing smoke.<ref name="DM"/>

An early influential sculpture was ''Polaris'' in 1983,<ref name="npg">{{cite web |url= https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw12332/Sir-Richard-Branson?search=sa&LinkID=mp10384&role=art&rNo=0 |title= Sir Richard Branson 1 portrait by David Mach |work= National Portrait Gallery |access-date= August 14, 2023}}</ref> exhibited outside the [[Royal Festival Hall]], [[South Bank Centre]], [[London]].<ref name="DM"/> This consisted of some 6,000 car tyres arranged as a life size replica of a [[Resolution-class submarine|Polaris submarine]].<ref name="DM"/> Mach intended it as a protest against the [[nuclear arms race]] meant to stir controversy.<ref name="DM"/> A member of the public, James Gore-Graham from West Kensington, who took exception to the piece tried to burn it down; unfortunately, he got caught in the flames himself and suffered 90% burns from the explosion and died three days later.<ref name="DM">{{cite web |url= https://dangerousminds.net/comments/david_machs_incredible_sculptures |title= David Mach's Incredible Sculptures |work= dangerousminds.net |date= December 29, 2010 |access-date= August 14, 2023}}</ref>

In the early 1980s Mach started to produce some smaller-scale works assembled out of unstruck [[match|match stick]]s. These mostly took the form of human or animalistic heads and masks, like ''Elvis'',<ref name="DM"/> with the coloured tips of the match heads arranged to construct the patterned surface of the face. After accidentally setting fire to one of these heads, Mach now often ignites his match pieces as a form of [[performance art]]. He constructed ''Gorilla'' from coat-hangers.<ref name="DM"/>

[[File:Brick Train Darlington - geograph.org.uk - 308862.jpg|thumb|''Brick Train'' near [[Darlington]]]]
In 1997, Mach produced some larger-scale permanent public works such as ''Out of Order'' in [[Kingston upon Thames]], the ''[[Brick Train]]'' (a depiction of an [[LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard]] steam engine which held the speed record of 126mph in 1934), made from 185,000 bricks, which can be seen near Morrison's supermarket on the A66 just outside [[Darlington]].<ref name="train">{{cite web |url=http://www.thisisdarlington.com/attractions/Darlingtons_Brick_Train.asp |title=Darlington's Brick Train |publisher=This is Darlington |access-date=6 January 2020}}</ref> and the ''Big Heids'' visible from the [[M8 motorway (Scotland)|M8]] between [[Glasgow]] and [[Edinburgh]].<ref name="NG"/>

A second strand to Mach's work are his [[collage]] pieces.<ref name="npg"/> Partly as a result of having access to thousands of reproduced images in the magazines left over from many of his installations, Mach began to experiment with producing collages.<ref name="npg"/> In 1999, he produced a mixed-media postcard and photo-collage of [[Sir Richard Branson]], measuring 1.824 x 1.826 metres.<ref name="npg"/> he did a ''National Portrait,'' of 3 x 70 metres collage for the [[Millennium Dome]] that featured many images of British people at work and at play.

In 2011, he joined forces with the [[Museum of Edinburgh]], to produce an explosive display celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.<ref name="bible">{{Cite web |url= http://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/Venues/City-Art-Centre/Exhibitions/Exhibitions-Coming-Soon/David-Mach---Precious-Light.aspx |title= Exhibition July to October 2011 at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh |work= edinburghmuseums.org.uk |date= 2011 |access-date= 23 November 2019 |archive-date= 22 January 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110122164336/http://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/Venues/City-Art-Centre/Exhibitions/Exhibitions-Coming-Soon/David-Mach---Precious-Light.aspx |url-status= dead }}</ref>

==Awards and honours==
*1988 Mach was nominated for the [[Turner Prize]] at the [[Tate Gallery]], London.<ref name="RA"/>
*1992 Winner of the Lord Provost's Prize for Services to the Visual Arts in Glasgow.<ref name="RA"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* {{official website|http://www.davidmach.com/}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120303011620/http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4%3A322/?initial=M&artistId=3094&artistName=David%20Mach&submit=1 Works in the National Galleries of Scotland]
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/mach_david.html David Mach on Artcyclopedia]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mach, David}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1956 births]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish male artists]]
[[Category:21st-century Scottish male artists]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Dundee]]
[[Category:British installation artists]]
[[Category:British collage artists]]
[[Category:People from Methil]]
[[Category:Royal Academicians]]
[[Category:Scottish contemporary artists]]
[[Category:Scottish male sculptors]]
[[Category:Alumni of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design]]