Peter Kennard has been recognised by Art in America as “one of the very few artists - the only one it might be said - who has had a direct effect on recent British politics”. These two new sets of work have been made during the invasion and occupation of Iraq from 2003 to the present. For Decoration Kennard has combined the use of digital printing techniques with oil paint to make images that break up and are torn apart in front of our eyes.



Decoration juxtaposes notions of military commemoration with the real victims of the war. The images themselves are of war medals, but which are twisted and contrary to the notion of the medal as a military commemoration. Expanding on a visual metaphor first seen in the late 1980s, Kennard's medals are distortions. In place of the shiny metal medallion is a face, bandaged, battered. These faces truly are innocent victims, the men, women and children caught in the (friendly) crossfire.

Made from pieces of either the US star spangled banner, or the Union Jack, the ribbons used to keep the medals in place are frayed, tattered, burnt, ripped, covered in the dust of war. The US flag, Kennard notes, is a democratically designed flag and is seen as the embodiment of the nation. In these images the nation is literally tied to the pain and suffering it has caused. In the US, the defecation of 'Old Glory' is taken as evidence of criminal or terrorist intent. Kennard wonders what happens when that flag, a symbol of American democracy and equality, comes to stand for undemocratic military aggression. These images act as a sign that amidst the declarations of fighting a just war, the victims have yet to receive justice.

The digital prints in ‘Award’ are made using a multiplicity of techniques which depict victims and destroyed buildings, with the ribbon becoming a torn and shattered symbol of the aggressor. They portray the desecration and despair brought about by this neo-colonial war and embody what is unspeakable about our involvement in this war.



Cat Picton Phillipps, originally from a photographic background, now works with digital technology to find ways, in her own words ‘to shatter the stranglehold of corporate smoothness that pervades our image saturated world.’

Peter Kennard has been making work for the anti-war movement for a number of years. His work is represented in various collections including the Arts Council Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum and the Saatchi Collection. His most recent publication ‘Dispatches from an Unofficial War Artist’ published by Lund Humphries is available from the gallery.

A portfolio of ‘Award’ is published as a boxed set by Martello Press in association with Henry Peacock Press and Gimpel Fils. It consists of 15 prints with an essay by John Berger and a piece of writing by Thom Yorke (of Radiohead).

A minigraph with an essay by John Berger accompanies this exhibition.

Documentation of the exhibition in-situ.