Introducing Gerry King

135 artists are taking part in "Inside Job" which takes place on the 7th and 8th of April on Level 6 of Tate Modern. Over the next few weeks The Rebel Magazine will be chatting to some of the Tate staff who are showing their artwork. Today we say "Hello" to Gerry King.

Q) Where did you grow up and what kind of education did you receive? "I was born in Lambeth, London, my first ever foray into writing and publishing was a three-page carbon copy magazine made when I was in care during the early 1970s. I consider myself an autodidact, however I studied Performance Writing at the magnificent Dartington College of Arts as a mature student. At this time, I began to have some awareness or context to how I wanted to express myself. Until the early 1990s I carried out extensive research in subjective malfeasance, experiencing a wide range of colourful environments and characters from secure government institutions to seaside winter lets, city squats and international hotels. The inspiration for many of my stories are drawn from my irregular past, certainly some of the people I met through my late father, who was an ex-professional boxer. I come from the old school of battered Transit vans and fading walnut dashed predatory Jaguars with big boots. My work history has covered most aspects of low – status survival and dubious self – employment."

Q) How long have you been working at the Tate and what is the best show you’ve seen there? "I participated in the Amelia Pica and Roman Ondak performance pieces that were part of the inauguration of the Blavatnik building in 2016 but I started work as a visitor assistant just over a year ago. The Red Star Over Russia exhibition is my favourite to date from beginning to end. The dedication and passion of the collector David King, the importance of the avant-garde within this social and historical context. What it says to me is: Nothing comes easy."

Q) What can you tell me about the work you are exhibiting in the Tate Modern show? "On the 12th September 2005 The Guardian moved from their broadsheet format to the now defunct Berliner. I had been writing micro fictions and taking photographs. I was living in Bristol a City keen on recycling, so I moved my work into the old Guardian. The name Zero Lubin had been created in the ‘witch’s hat’ part of a corner building on Belmont and Hoyne in Chicago, Illinois during the winter of 1998. The Lubin is the beginning of giving my work a home. There followed a series of esoteric greeting cards and two books: Lubin Tales 2010 and Smoke and Other Tales 2016."

Q) How do people find out more about you or get in contact with you? My e-mail address is: gerardking@gmail.com you can also visit: www.zerolubin.org and https://zerolubin.wordpress.com/

Q) Is there anything you have to declare/do you have a favourite quote, thought or joke you’d care to share? "While I was living in Chicago I met the Pulitzer Prize winning author Studs Terkel. My favourite quote is his: Take it easy… but take it."

"Inside Job": An exhibition of art by Tate Staff will take place on Level 6 of the Blavatnik Building of Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern