Tag British Armed Forces
MUSEUM OF FREE DERRY
I visited Derry yesterday and the Museum of Free Derry where my Bloody Sunday Bayeux Tapestry is on display. It’s such an honour to have my work here, and it was great to see the museum itself, which is an important and fascinating history of the Troubles and of the anti-Catholic apartheid in the North which was instrumental in triggering the conflict. In many ways the city of Derry is like a microcosm of the colonisation, subjugation and partition of Ireland. The scale of state violence from the plastic and rubber bullets, chemical weapons, batons with nails driven through them, and live ammunition that were used against a civilian population is hard to get your head around, particularly when this was happening in what is, ostensibly at least, a UK city, and within living memory.
BLOODY SUNDAY
Extended Bayuex Tapestry: Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday was a massacre on 30th January 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland, when British soldiers from the Parachute Regiment shot 26 unarmed civilians during a civil rights protest march. 14 people died, 7 of them teenagers. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Other protesters were injured by shrapnel, rubber bullets or batons, and two were run down by army vehicles. The initial tribunal into the killings was a whitewash and exonerated the soldiers of any wrongdoing, claiming the protesters had been armed. Decades later the Saville Inquiry (no relation) found the killings had been unjustified and unjustifiable. As of 2020 only one soldier (Soldier F) is to face charges for the massacre. Prints of this are available.
DSEI
The world’s largest arms fair, DSEI, which opened in London today, just accidentally retweeted my post about the Royal Navy launching “Become A Suicide Bomber” recruitment ads. More details about this project: www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/suicidebomber Fake Royal Navy recruitment website I made: www.royalnavy.org.uk Stop the Arms Fair www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk
FORCES WATCH PODCAST
I was invited on the Warrior Nation podcast by ForcesWatch, where we talked about my anti-recruitment art, Action Man: Battlefield Casualties, child soldiers in the British army, and the ways that Hollywood works with the Pentagon to turn movie fans into military recruits (as elaborated on in the below video by Pop Culture Detective)
THIS IS BELONGING
The Army blocked me on twitter.
NUCLEAR POWDER
Limited edition signed prints available in the shop, size A3 – £60 (£10 off until 4th May use the code NUKE) Edition of 75.
ROYAL NAVY POSTERS – THE PRESS
Been getting some press attention over the Royal Navy recruitment posters I designed. The above video was on RT UK News on 3/2/17. It’s also been reported in The Sun, The Telegraph, Evening Standard and Brietbart. I’ll update the project page if or when anything else comes in.
ROYAL NAVY: ‘BECOME A SUICIDE BOMBER’
I designed the new Royal Navy recruitment poster that has started appearing around London. Budding recruits should visit royalnavy.org.uk for more information. Big thanks to Special Patrol Group for installation help. More photos and updated project page here. Nuclear bombs are suicide bombs – it is impossible to use these weapons without also killing ourselves. A country with nuclear weapons is prepared to destroy the world rather than lose a war. With a single weapon system we hold the planet hostage by the sort of terror you only get from thermonuclear missiles. Terrorists are willing to commit suicide to brutally murder innocent people, but so are we. In fact, we’re about to spend £200 billion on upgrading our ability to do so. The British government refuses to rule out first-use of nuclear weapons and has stated it may use them even if its ‘vital interests’ are threatened. Due to NATO membership and our alleged Special Relationship, we’re also committed to a nuclear suicide pact with America. The posters point budding recruits to a website at royalnavy.org.uk which demonstrates how the crew of a nuclear submarine must be prepared to destroy human civilisation on command.
TABLOID FURY
On Sunday I had a stall of my work at Momentum’s The World Transformed arts and politics festival at The Black-E in Liverpool. Some of my anti-army recruitment work was on display: ‘Join the Army‘ and my ‘Make Stuff Dead‘ mugs along with flyers for Action Man: Battlefield Casualties. This work is supported and endorsed by 100s of veterans, but why would the right-wing press let that get in the way of an opportunity to smear Jeremy Corbyn?My favourite part of the whole thing was Tory MP Johnny Mercer calling me a “Britain hating anarchist who knows the value for nothing” in The Sun’s online article. The story was originally posted by Guido Fawkes and picked up by the Daily Mail who went fully haywire and claimed the stall was actually at the Labour party conference. But the journamislm required to find out that wasn’t the case would have detracted from the DISGUSTED OUTRAGE. It was also strange to see the press such as The Times claim soldiers were deeply offended by my ‘Make Stuff Dead’ mugs while my twitter feed was full of soldiers asking me where they could buy one. (Here, in case you were wondering) Today Veterans for Peace UK have released a statement about the press reaction to this work. It is a powerful and eleoquent refutation of the media’s use of soldiers for political ends. You can read the full thing on their website. Here’s an excerpt: VETERANS BACK “SICK TOYS” “Let us be clear. The superb ‘Army, Be The Meat’ project and the ‘Action Man: Battlefield Casualties‘ films, which were launched 18 months ago, are nothing to do with Labour or Momentum.The credit belongs to the artist who conceived and created it and, spiritually, to the hundreds of veterans who endorsed it. This work […]
NUCLEAR SOLUTIONS
I made this poster as part of the #StopDSEI campaign, which went up alongside a whole load of other posters in 30 bus stops around London, helped in no small part by the wonderful humans at Special Patrols Group. I did an interview with Vice about the project, which you can read here. If you’re interested in subverting an advertising space near you, check out the Ad-Space Hack Pack Strike! Magazine put together. #NuclearWar #Trident
FOOTBALL
Repost of an old image from my comic ‘Join the Army‘. Also available as a print. #BeTheMeat
BAYEUX ATROCITIES
Bayeux tapestry style depictions of British military atrocities. The outside of my comic ‘Join the Army‘ features a 1.5m Bayeux tapestry style version of the Iraq war, but I wanted to expand on this idea for the launch exhibition, so I made these smaller ‘tapestries’ about other UK military atrocities, (Bloody Sunday and the sinking of the Belgrano). I’m thinking about expanding the series back further, covering historical massacres committed on behalf of the empire worldwide. They’re available as prints. #BeTheMeat #Military #Empire
LOST
Been putting these up around the place. #Terrorism #Empire #Military
ACTION MAN: BATTLEFIELD CASUALTIES – THE TOYS
As part of my Join the Army comic I made this poster of three Action Man ‘Battlefield Casualties’. If you’re not already aware of it, the British military have their own line of children’s toys which tend to focus on how much fun war is, (called H.M. Armed Forces). I wanted to make something of an antidote to that. I also recently wrote a short article for Veterans For Peace UK about the project and military advertising in general. You can read it here. These will been shown at the launch exhibition for the comic.
ANTI-ARMY RECRUITMENT COMIC
Short strip from my anti-army recruitment comic which has 8 days left on Kickstarter. Below is a detail of the Iraq war Bayeux Tapestry which will be on the back of the book. (Don’t) Join the Army #BeTheMeat #Military
SHINY SHINY MEDALS
UPDATE: included in my Join the Army comic.
ROYAL NAVY – LIFE WITH LIMITS
The new Royal Navy recruitment advert taken to it’s logical conclusion. See also my anti-army recruitment comic.
