Robert 'Ninebob' Beach is a 53 year old gay artist living with HIV. Born in London he grew up in his family’s B&B in Victoria. Now running the business and being a full-time carer for his 94-year-old mother who suffers from dementia.
My rebel fantasy 2022
Lip sink for your life. 'Does exactly what it says on the compact'. The commercial success of underground rebellious cultures. Non-conforming art forms become mainstream their own deadly 'forever chemicals.
Materials Featured: His mum's old compact, 00 figures from my dad's model railway train collection. An old bit of Weve Pink pen
Ninebob's life is claustrophobic. With little or no downtime or any personal space, his art-making is a therapy that allows him to find balance and joy while working through his memories, emotions and experiences. Prone to depression and battling addictions the artworks are a way through his anxiety, an outlet towards better mental health, stability and well-being.
Dark Room 2023
Never really found the the whole Dark Room experience that sexy. I’m short-sighted and deaf in one ear and really clumsy so these spaces are not for me, plus I’m too much of a face man I like to look into an eye.
But I do find them funny and fascinating and a good place to do a bmp of drugs. The fun and the secrets that go on behind PVC curtains. Materials Featured: Job lot playtoy figures from a local charity shop and paired with gloss Kit, bashed toy sets, Cardboard, Black 3.0 on walls
Graf picks printed Rubber curtains, pink pen work, Glue gun, cum mini strobe, and LED lights.
He describes himself as 'Bob' of all trades, master of none, has been around the block at least 7 times, brought the T-shirt and lost it, customised it, and lost it again. In a constant gay state of play with a glue gun. He comes from the school of appreciating “Brilliant Shit” and is passionate about the street as a gallery and reads the writing on the walls.
Cum ear u rebel scum 2019
'My crush on Han Solo/ Harrison Ford/ Indiana Jones was a definite early realisation that I was homosexual. I had countless obsessions with Han Solo and fighting in rebellion with him, and riding away with him on the back of a Tauntaun.'
Materials Featured: flocked legs and snow, penis made in China, expanding foam and glue gun cum. The piece is made from Ninebob's precious and beloved Star Wars toy collection and used because of its water-damaged 'original collectable box'.
The work is made from the lost and found objects, hand-me-downs, dregs of drag, his family’s old toys, charity shop finds, model Railway, inherited models from his passed dad's air-fix and Harry Potter figurine hoard. His imagination never stops and is limitless and infused with a 'glue gun super glue sticky back sellotape' and a wish and a prayer.
Kaz meaner pink hair 2022
Deeper, Deeper, Deeper!!
Inspired by true events, my first time in San Francisco in 1999, after copious amounts of liquid LSD, and a whole day, was at the open-air gay sex fair, Folsom Street Fair.
I lost everyone, wandering the streets in my dream-like state, I remember seeing the Wendy's burger chain sign, and I walked towards the promise of burgers. I could see a crowd and heard the thump of bass from music and everyone chanting and screaming.
Obviously distracted, I went over to see what was going on and everyone was screaming.
Deeper, Deeper, Deeper !!
As I came closer, I realise the crowd was congregating around the bus stop and on the top of the bus stop and a queue of guys waiting to sit on a massive dildo!
Deeper, Deeper, Deeper!!
Materials Featured: WWF figure and Pali toy set. Finger bandage penis from China.
glue gun, various toy shops, charity finds kit, bashed toys, photocopied, bus stops sine spray, paint black dildo from Roxylee
His new work is a stream-of-consciousness diorama that explores Gay role play, downloading his internal chitter chatter, marking points of trauma, injustice, decay, and from death to joy.
In his own words, it’s all in the process! It is where time stops and making art starts and flows. I know it all will be alright when mumma's bell rings for the last time.'
B-boys Cottage too! 2020
I spent a long time in the closet. The cottage and cruising were where I had my early and informative sexual experiences. Long before the invention of the Internet and a 5G handset.
'I sat there on a toilet, waiting, waiting and waiting till my arse froze, walking out, washing my hands, standing far too long at the hand dryer, sticking toilet paper into the holes, pushing toilet paper out of the holes, hoping someone pulls the toilet paper out the holes, then someone to walk in and look through that hole. Who made the hole ?! '
'Cruising, still to this day they have been some of my best sexual experiences and truth be told I miss it.'
'No communication, no names, gesture and silence, quick simple and full of gay shame. If you know you know !'
Materials Featured: Figures for my toy collection that was flood damaged. Cardboard box line mode. Graffitied pen work. Toilet made from yoghurt pots, various dolls house pieces, real toilet paper, gorilla glue, toilet holders half a ping-pong
Ninebob's new artwork explores his adult anxiety and experiences through childhood objects which he translates into playful dialogues. While it is easy to see the work as naive and unvarnished the attention to detail, personal narratives and layers of meta-meaning and inferences which makes these works poignant and urgent.
For further enquires / Instagram @ninebobrob_bent_as