Queen’s image an iconic symbol with myriad meanings

Advertisement

Advertise with us

In 1964, a British sculptor by the name of Arnold Machin was chosen to design a new effigy for Queen Elizabeth II, which was to be used on coinage and stamps in the U.K. and in other Commonwealth countries. The iconic Machin effigy — with the Queen cutting a striking profile — is now believed to be the most reproduced artwork in history.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2022 (1421 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 1964, a British sculptor by the name of Arnold Machin was chosen to design a new effigy for Queen Elizabeth II, which was to be used on coinage and stamps in the U.K. and in other Commonwealth countries. The iconic Machin effigy — with the Queen cutting a striking profile — is now believed to be the most reproduced artwork in history.

That’s how many of us knew Queen Elizabeth II, who died last week at the age of 96, with 70 of those years on the throne: as a static icon of history, art and pop culture.

Even if you aren’t a royal watcher, the queen’s image is inescapable — for the simple fact her face is almost always in your wallet. For a long time, she cast a watchful eye over Winnipeg Jets games at the old arena; her official portraits and statues can be found in and around all manner of government buildings.

Andy Warhol’s Reigning Queen plays on the already much-repeated image of the late British monarch.

Andy Warhol’s Reigning Queen plays on the already much-repeated image of the late British monarch.

Like that famous 2000s study that showed that kids as young as two recognize brand logos, Commonwealth kids likely have the same sensation with the queen.

But Elizabeth II was an artistic muse far beyond the official effigies and portraits.

Comedian Scott Thompson, a member of the influential Canadian sketch comedy troupe Kids in the Hall, often played the queen with great affection on its TV show, which ran on CBC from 1989 to 1995.

“In Canada, and like anywhere in the Commonwealth, the queen’s more than a person; she’s a symbol,” Thompson said in a recent interview with Vulture. “So when I played her, it wasn’t like I was doing a celebrity impersonation; it was portraying an idea.”

Less affectionate, but just as iconic as any official portrait, is British punk artist Jamie Reid’s controversial artwork for the Sex Pistols single God Save the Queen, which features a defaced 1977 Silver Jubilee portrait of the monarch.

One version has a safety pin hooked through her mouth; the other, more recognizable design, has her mouth and eyes torn away to reveal the “God Save The Queen” and “Sex Pistols” in a magazine-collage font most closely associated with ransom notes.

In addition to reliably topping lists of defining U.K. punk rock images, Reid’s Sex Pistols cover artwork has been exhibited in art galleries. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has a lithograph.

In American pop art-pioneer Andy Warhol’s hands, that same 1977 Silver Jubilee portrait is rendered in a riot of colours — her eyes, especially, a piercing blue — as part of his 1985 series of silkscreen portraits entitled Reigning Queens. Warhol frequently used repetition in his work; here, it adds another level — images of royalty, more so than the other celebrities whose likenesses he turned into pop art, tend to be copies of copies of copies.

JONATHAN HAYWARD / CANADIAN PRESS FILES
                                Former Conservative MP Peter MacKay (left) speaks with actor Scott Thompson, dressed as Queen Elizabeth II in 2005. 

JONATHAN HAYWARD / CANADIAN PRESS FILES

Former Conservative MP Peter MacKay (left) speaks with actor Scott Thompson, dressed as Queen Elizabeth II in 2005. 

And she’s still inspiring art. Earlier this year, more than 50 contemporary artists created portraits of the queen for a London exhibition called Art Save the Queen, in celebration of the queen’s Platinum Jubilee. While some portraits skew traditional, others go playful (and a little caustic): the queen in aviator sunglasses. The queen covered in tattoos. The queen in full KISS makeup, with LIZZ written in the rock band’s signature font. Some even riff on the Machin effigy.

That artistic expression, of course, lends to this notion of the queen as idea — or symbol, or avatar, or relic or cipher. Depending on the lens, she is a symbol of colonialism and imperialism, or she’s a symbol of duty and discipline. She’s cool and unknowable, or she’s the grandmotherly figure with a fondness for loud hats, dry martinis and corgis.

There is so much we don’t know about Elizabeth II, the human person, so devout was her commitment to the crown — also an idea and a symbol — to the point that the crown and the woman wearing it became one and the same. It may be her likeness, but it’s our projections and perceptions that continue to shape and reshape it.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @JenZoratti

Jen Zoratti

Jen Zoratti
Columnist

Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen.

Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

 

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Advocates say rehab benefits animals with behavioural issues, but more resources are needed

By Tiago Resko 4 minute read Preview

Advocates say rehab benefits animals with behavioural issues, but more resources are needed

By Tiago Resko 4 minute read 6:07 PM CDT

After two years at the Winnipeg Humane Society’s shelter, it seemed iffy that Benny would ever find a forever home.

The German shepherd had behavioural issues and was not great at socializing with other dogs, but after one month of rehabilitation with Back to Pack Rescue Shelter, he was able to be adopted.

Benny was fortunate enough to be given another chance, but the lack of resources for rehabilitating dogs means some aren’t as lucky, said Andrew Din, co-founder of Back to Pack.

Din and other animal advocates say more resources and education are needed to retrain dogs and give them a fair shot before they are euthanized or designated as dangerous.

Read
6:07 PM CDT

Accused in amateur soccer star’s fatal 2024 Winnipeg shooting arrested in B.C.

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Preview

Accused in amateur soccer star’s fatal 2024 Winnipeg shooting arrested in B.C.

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Yesterday at 12:50 PM CDT

A man who’s been on the lam since he was accused in a brazen Winnipeg shooting in July 2024, in which an amateur soccer star was slain, has been arrested in British Columbia.

Tresor Horimbere, 24, was found and arrested in Langley, B.C., a city just east of Vancouver, on July 30.

Manitoba police officers travelled to B.C. on Monday to arrest him and bring him back to Winnipeg.

He’s been charged with first-degree murder in the July 13, 2024 slaying of Mohamed Yusuf Abdullahi, 22, in the parking lot of the Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex on Waverley Street.

Read
Yesterday at 12:50 PM CDT

U of M researchers studying ‘digital legacy planning’ before death

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read Preview

U of M researchers studying ‘digital legacy planning’ before death

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read 6:10 PM CDT

A team of researchers at the University of Manitoba wants adults to take the cloud they leave behind into special consideration when they envision heaven and their afterlife.

Read
6:10 PM CDT

Drunk driver who killed cycling couple, orphaned their infant daughter, sentenced to eight years

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Drunk driver who killed cycling couple, orphaned their infant daughter, sentenced to eight years

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Yesterday at 5:47 PM CDT

A Winnipeg man responsible for a drunk-driving crash that killed two cyclists last summer and left their infant child an orphan has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Kuldeep Singh Gill was arrested Sept. 13 after fleeing from a high-speed collision on Kenaston Boulevard that killed 31-year-old Egor Popov and his 25-year-old common-law partner Kerry Ashley Bonner.

Gill, 46, pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of impaired driving causing death and two counts of failing to stop at the scene of a collision.

Gill, who has a prior conviction for impaired driving, made a conscious decision to drive drunk, knowing it made him a danger on the road, provincial court Judge David Ireland said at a sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Read
Yesterday at 5:47 PM CDT

Homegrown grub: Resto turns to the Leaf for freshest ingredients

AV Kitching 4 minute read Preview

Homegrown grub: Resto turns to the Leaf for freshest ingredients

AV Kitching 4 minute read Yesterday at 3:39 PM CDT

The term “eat local” has taken on a whole new meaning at Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar, where the journey from plot to plate is measured in footsteps rather than miles.

Head chef Mike Licharson has expanded the restaurant’s focus on local sourcing by incorporating fruit and vegetables grown in The Leaf’s biomes and outdoor kitchen garden into his menu.

Bananas from the tropical biomes star in his banana-bread French toast and accompanying banana compote. Leeks, braised slowly and paired with Manitoba-grown beluga lentils, and Swiss chard — which takes the place of grape leaves in Licharson’s play on classic meze dolmades, a nod to the chef’s Greek-Ukrainian-Irish heritage — are both grown in the outdoor kitchen garden.

The park’s produce complements the restaurant’s other locally sourced ingredients, Licharson says.

Read
Yesterday at 3:39 PM CDT

Toronto’s alternative crisis response model deemed a success

Scott Billeck 4 minute read Preview

Toronto’s alternative crisis response model deemed a success

Scott Billeck 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

A Toronto emergency response program that helped inspire Winnipeg’s proposed alternative crisis response model has already expanded city-wide, just four years after launching as a pilot project.

The Toronto Community Crisis Service, launched in 2022, has become the city’s fourth emergency service, providing a 24-7, community-based response to people experiencing mental health crises. The service has handled nearly 50,000 calls through 911 and 211, dispatched mobile crisis teams to more than 41,000 incidents, made more than 11,600 referrals to health and social services and resolved the majority of eligible 911 calls without police involvement.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham last week proposed creating a similar “fourth crisis response pathway” that would allow 911 calls that aren’t violent or criminal in nature to be transferred to community-based crisis teams.

Under the proposal, which has support from both the Winnipeg Police Service and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, a centralized crisis dispatch and co-ordination hub would receive triaged calls and match them with citywide response teams, staffed in part through existing community organizations, including the Downtown Community Safety Partnership and The Link’s mobile crisis teams. The goal is to divert appropriate calls away from the WPS and WFPS.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT