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NO BORDERS, 2006, kennardphillipps.

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Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps began working together under the name kennardphillipps in 2002, collaborating to produce art that responded to the build up to and aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Both attended anti-war demonstrations and their collaboration saw them create works that reflect their opposition to the conflict such as Photo Op (2007), in which former Prime Minister Tony Blair is depicted taking a ‘selfie’ in front of an explosion,  

“We both had this deep need, desire, to make work to counter…I don’t know, British foreign policy which sounds insane right, just to try and counter military action with artwork but, I don’t know, that’s the position that we take as artists – that it is a very valuable and powerful way to operate against military might and violence and policy,” said Cat.

Copy courtesy of Imperial War Museums.

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The People’s Pennies: as used by Mothers, Enemies of Good Art in anti-austerity demonstrations facing riot police, 2011, Cat Phillipps

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Multiple works, Peter Kennard

“Peter Kennard’s work is haunting. Eschewing words, it insists upon not being forgotten. He is a master of the medium of photomontage. His images are impossible to convey with words because of their unmistakable visual texture, pure and dirty, suggesting a strange amalgam of X-ray, satellite image and slag. The future – which for so long was a mine of gory rhetoric for those holding power – today depends upon those who insist upon looking beyond their lifetime. And to do this we have to scrutinise, like Peter Kennard, our nightmares and suppressed hopes. His art cannot be ignored.” John Berger, The Guardian.

Peter’s protest work spans several decades and never ceases to hit the nail on the head. His work is joined, at the top of the poster wall by the grand daddy of anti-war poster makers, John Heartfield.

Photo by Michele Panzeri.

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