False Flags (or Star Strangled Banners)

A bit of a departure but still looking at the reasons we go to war and taking a leap from the beginning of the 20th century to the end.
A 'False Flag' incident is a conspiracy theorist term  where a government fakes a situation, often against its own people so it can justify the use of force against the perceived antagonists. The attack on September 11th is probably the most famous of recent False Flag incidents, giving the Bush administration the green light to begin the war in Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq. As all modern conflicts are fought in the glare of the media spotlight, soundbites and headlines are important surrounding the subject as they have provided the titles of these pieces. I've given this series the title of False Flags as they are just that; commenting on the spurious reasons for war in the Middle and Far East and because the flags have had their colours replaced with images symbolic of the conflicts they have endured. These countries have become defined by the wars fought within their borders.
I mean no offence to the people of the countries represented by these flags. I only wish to question the decisions made by the people in power who when exercising their political will have sent and will continue to send our young men and women as well as countless civilians to their deaths.

I remember one of the conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy's assassination was that he was about to withdraw troops from Vietnam and this wouldn't have gone down well with the arms industry who were enjoying the boon in supply and demand. We'll probably never know who really killed JFK but it's interesting to note that upon Lyndon Johnson's succession to the presidency, America ramped up its involvement in Vietnam to a point where there were over half a million U.S troops in the country with a casualty rate of over a thousand killed each month. Johnson's reason for the heavy commitment to the Vietnam War was he believed in the 'Domino' theory of politics and wanted to stop communist expansion in its tracks.

The first image is really a comment on the arms industry that is the only real beneficiary of any conflict and also on the fact that as I stated before, countries become defined by the conflicts fought within their boundaries.

South Vietnam

 The term "Peace is at hand", offered by Henry Kissinger at a press conference in October 1972, referring to the almost decade old Vietnam War became the inspiration for the second flag. The idea of achieving peace through war is something of a paradox and proved to be somewhat optimistic in this case as the war rumbled on for three more years. The phrase did its job though and the then President Nixon was reelected in the next election. This kind of political event with the potential to influence the outcome of an election has become known as an 'October Surprise' as U.S National elections are held in the middle of November.

Peace Is At Hand

The title alludes to the Kissinger speech but also to the idea of peace through force, represented by the U.S weapons and planes making up the colours and shapes of the North Vietnamese flag

Anyone who has seen the footage of the infamous Saigon Execution couldn't fail to be shocked by its brutality. I've used it as the background here as it creates a strong paradox when coupled with the title of the image.

October Surprise (Peace is at Hand)
North Vietnam Ver.2

Iraq. Bush getting elected in strange circumstances, 9/11, WMD, the Dodgy Dossier, Anti-War protests, Collateral damage, Blue on Blue incidents, poorly equipped soldiers, etc, etc.The theories relating to the West's involvement in Iraq are well documented and don't need to be repeated here.Did I miss something or did we never find any weapons of mass destruction? Wasn't that why we were there in the first place or was there another reason?
The first four images here are early versions where I was playing with the various imagery related to WMD. The tanks are going right to left to indicate a retreat. This changes in the final version to sit better with the title.

Regime Change

Ironic that we deposed a regime that didn't have any WMDs (not being an apologist for Saddam Hussein) and replaced it with one that does.

Next two images were a response to the term 'Mission Creep'. The term describes a mission that begins with one objective but gradually turns into another. The 'another' being the real reason for being there in the first place. Here the colours of the Iraq flag are formed when various U.S weapons and vehicles gradually combine to create fields of colour, illustrating the idea of something creeping up.

Mission Creep
Ver.1

Mission Creep
Ver.2

Libya. What are we doing there? What is this going to escalate into? Do the British government think the public will stomach another war in the Middle East? The government keep stating that this isn't mission creep, it wont escalate beyond how it began. No sooner had they said that, we're sending Apache helicopters and talking about putting military 'advisors' into the country to help the Libyans depose Gadaffi (do they not think we remember the role of US advisors in Vietnam?)
First image here is a comment on how the west thinks its job is to police the rest of the world, or should I say the oil producing world. It's also a comment on the military superiority of the west and our ability to quickly dominate the skies in any conflict.

No Fly's On Us

 Bombing raids and coffins. Necessary for the oil to flow.

Exit Strategy

If our activity in Libya escalates, we're going to have exactly what this flag is made up of; Boots on the Ground. Unfortunately the boots will be attached to the dead bodies of more of ours and their service people and civilians.

Boots on the Ground
Ver.1

Boots on the Ground

Pakistan. A comment on what's going on regarding the level of mistrust between the U.S and Pakistani governments. Did the Pakistanis know about the mission to assassinate Bin Laden? Did they assist the U.S or is the government there so corrupt that the U.S couldn't trust them?

Diplomatic Resolve

Finally, Afganistan. The title alludes to the Clinton Body Count which numbers the political adversaries of Bill Clinton who died in mysterious circumstances. Wonder what the Bush body count would be if you totalled all the deaths in all theatres during his presidency. The lettering at the top of the coat of arms says  'Sparse Intelligence', the scroll at the bottom reads 'The Case for War'. The Capitol building replaces the mosque in the centre, the stars and stripes replaces the Afghan flags either side. The wreath has become a wreath of rocket launchers wrapped up in dollar bills. A new government in the image of western democracy perhaps?

Bush Body Count

Before the war, the Taliban regime won two U.N awards for their stance against the heroin poppy growers in Afghanistan. They had forced poppy production down to almost zero. Since the beginning of the war, poppy production has gone stratospheric.

I read with interest that the U.S government is in talks with the Taliban to bring about an end to the war. Surely this could have taken place ten years ago. Are we any further forward than when we began the war?

Some pages from the sketchbook:



Lonely Guns

One of the things I find particularly interesting about the Great War is although it was the first war fought using innovations in military technology such as the machine gun, plane and accurate artillery, much of the design of these particularly the huge artillery pieces seems almost archaic. Huge tractor-like wheels, strange camouflage patterns and large foot pads to stop the guns sinking into the ground help create a look quite different to that of artillery from the Victorian era. Huge behemoth-like guns on rail or stationary mounts create interesting silhouettes.
This series of images came from a wash/paint/ink resist technique I use in the classroom. I plan to use the same technique on WW1 Dreadnoughts and on bombed Middle Eastern bridges at some point in the future. I wanted to create a series of images where the artillery appeared to be part of the desolate landscape of the Western Front. WW1 was known as the artillery war in that both sides hurled incomprehensible amounts of ordnance at each other in order to soften each other up before an attack and the 'creeping barrage' was first used where the artillery would aim their shot a safe distance infront of their own advancing forces to clear the enemy out of the way. The resultant devastation gave rise to hauntingly empty landscapes. Paul Nash's 'We Are Creating a New World' is a good illustration of this. I found the angle the gun barrels sit at made me think of young animals or birds waiting to be fed by their parents. Again, tying this into the theme of religion being a justification for war, the barrels strain upwards to heaven, waiting for battle to start so they can be fed the souls of the young men who's lives they are about to take.
I've done two versions of these so far; the initial wash off technique versions and from these, a more painterly version using gesso and printing ink. The printing ink allows me to scratch into the surfaces of the artillery, printing rivets and drawn lines which are subtle in their presence.

These first two show the wash off technique. The next three are the more painterly versions. The printing ink was so thick that two of them are still tacky in places. I painted them about two months ago!

I like the claustrophobic feel to the rail-mounted gun in that it stretches to both sides of the image but I can see me redoing a few of the others on larger surfaces where they are smaller in the landscape. The yellow wash in the background suggests the use of gas on the battlefield.

The 'Lonely Gun' title is a temporary one until I find a better one but as it goes quite well with the connotations of a child waiting to be fed and the innocence and vulnerability of the young, it might stick.

Double Cross 1

Another piece in the same series as Gott Mit Uns, looking at the dichotomy of both sides in a conflict calling on the same higher power to provide them with protection and a justification for their actions.
The format is similar to the Gott Mit Uns piece and if further satisfies my desire for things to look diagrammatical and almost didactic although I'm by no means tyring to preach through my work, far from it. The opposite in fact.
The lozenge pattern features heavily here again and like the German Kanone piece, there are also phrases printed with gum arabic that are only visible in certain light conditions. The cruciform shape of the biplanes in plan gives the piece its title. I wish there was a clever reason for there being two planes rather than one but its purely because two looked better than one and matched the format of the Gott Mit Uns piece.The title was a fortuitous one; part pun, part comment on the beliefs of two sides trying to kill each other.

Double Cross 1
Acrylic, gold leaf and gum arabic on canvas board

The verse fom Ephesians used here talks about battling the forces of evil in the heavenly realms which I thought quite suitable for the planes in the main image. The verse has been translated into German and then the words have had their insides jumbled leaving just the first and last letters in the correct place. The words are still decipherable as your brain quickly sorts them into the correct order. I added this twist as it forms a sort of code, albeit an easily solved one. The Encient German Gothic font used for the lettering gives it an Ecclesiastical look and again, there's the accidental stained glass feel to the piece. Looking at it now, from a distance as it were, the gold leaf and colours in the text create an illuminated manuscript-type effect. Again, purely accidental but maybe subliminal.