born 12.2.43 died 20.3.92
Moving Target,Volume 3 Issue 2
Ed Newstead was 49 when he died.
He was an artist and a film-maker and had recently won a BAFTA awardfor a documentary he directed for the Forestry Commission. You may wonderwhy he was working as a cycle courier?
Ed’s life was full of contradictions, but the one constant was his exceptionaldedication as an artist. This had often led him to turn down work in thefilm industry where his uncompromising attitude would more often than notbe in conflict with these who get themselves up as the arbiters of publictaste and, indeed, intelligence. Where Ed worked in images, they woulddemand narrative and talking heads. Ed would periodically repudiate theindustry for its crassness and spend months doing odd jobs like van-driving,decorating or working as a cycle courier, though he preferred cc-ing becauseat least it was good exercise.
Ed had 4 daughters- Sarah 30, Naomi 18, Amy 14 and Nadine 9. He lovedthem dearly and for their sake desperately wanted recognition as an artist,not only for the financial ease this would bring them but also as a vindicationof his way of life. All of us who love him and were close to him wantedthat success for him too, to see an end to his frustration and principallyto see an end to his dreadful housing situation. He was constantly havingto move from one short-life place to another.
Ed couldn't fit into any of the ‘systems’, especially the benefit systemand always refused to claim or to work the public housing sector to hisown advantage. In stead he braved it out for years, often squatting soas not to be beholden or dependent. A member of a local West End housingcoop, be had been forced to move 9 times since 1985 as one after anotherof the short- lifes came up for rehabilitation. His last(semi-)permanentaddress was in Sandringham Flats on Charing X Rd., where he was much belovedby the old ladies whom he helped with their shopping and such-like.
As an artist, Ed had exhibited last November at the Metro Cinema andfor the last 2 years running with the Covent Garden Artists. At their mostrecent show in January at Smith’s Gallery on Neal St. two of his pictureswere stolen and, typically, he took it as a compliment! Ed’s courage wasformidable. He put himself in situations where most would not last a minute,but over the years he had built up his faith in himself as an artist andit was this faith that he fell back on in the really hard times, that andthe love of all those of us who loved him.
I know that faith and courage were with him at the end, in that terribleaccident, as was all our love. He is sorely missed.
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