By Mark Wallinger: anti-war art and the state of Britain todaySee also here.Mark Wallinger and Leon Kuhn spoke to Anindya Bhattacharyya about State Britain, the new anti-war artwork
Every age has its defining political struggle, and the anti-war movement occupies this role today.
Yet Britain’s visual art scene has by and large avoided directly addressing the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the protests against it.
This fact makes the latest work by leading British sculptor Mark Wallinger all the more surprising.
State Britain is currently on show at the Tate Britain in central London. It was commissioned by the Tate last year and kept secret until its unveiling earlier this month.
The work is a reconstruction of Brian Haw’s ramshackle collection of anti-war placards, banners and posters, exactly as it was in Parliament Square before most of it was torn down by police in May last year.
“It’s a sculpture, a reproduction,” explains Wallinger.
“You can think of it as a historical reconstruction if you like, except that historical reconstructions are ordinarily of something considered rather ‘important’ in an authoritarian way.”
And here.
