Iraq: a process of resistance documents the visual protest made by artists kennardphillipps against the invasion of Iraq and the transpiring obliteration of civilian life in Iraq 2002 – 2008. The work aims to be accessible by the general public and to involve them in questions relating to activism and art. Designed for the Brighton Photo Biennial 2008, Iraq: a process of resistance was shown at Ink-d gallery.

kennardphillipps began their collaborative work as a means to express their revulsion at the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. They aim to use their skills to express their solidarity with the Iraqi people and to produce work that can be used as a resource by anyone protesting against the war including magazines and newspapers.

From throwing dust, blood and oil onto a flatbed scanner for their first series of prints (Award) they moved on to working on paintings combining oil paint with digital printing and then onto large scale works printed on newspapers which are ripped and pummelled in an attempt to physically portray the war-torn country and a people devasted by relentless attack.

This exhibition is designed to show how photographic images from the media can be recontextualised through the processes of art to rip through the lies of mass destruction peddled by the USA and UK government led by George Bush and Tony Blair. By looking at individual press photographs and recombining them in a new context their work offers an audience an alternative view of the construction of war.

photos by Kristian Buus

Forms of Resistance was a large show at the Vanne Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, for which we remade soldier#1 as a billboard and showed the STOP protest posters surrounding the footage from Lakenheath airbase.

The exhibition Forms of Resistance shows that ‘art and resistance’ are both timeless and universal. Although politically engaged works often put content first, this exhibition shows that art is an outstanding method of transforming content using form.

The exhibition draws on four historical events: the Paris Commune (1871), the Russian Revolution (1917), the Prague Spring (May ’68) and the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989). This division does not pretend to be historically exhaustive but shows how resistance through the centuries has been repeated and revived, and has not been merely limited to social problems of a national nature. Socially conscious artists are often part of a larger movement or organisation, such as the Futurists, Constructivists, Bauhaus, Atelier Populair, Brigadas Ramona Parra or the Angola Committee in the Netherlands. There are also photograph and video collectives, which were particularly prevalent in the 1970s and highlight abuses on every continent. Other people, such as John Heartfield, Adrian Piper, Hans Haacke, Valie Export and Sanja Ivekovic, work alone. Marco Scotini’s Disobedience archive, which contains a collection of manifestations of civil disobedience, provides a social platform for related yet independent forms of protest all over the world.

Artists and graphic designers have emerged as idealists, accusers, underground activists, guerrillas, anarchists or propagandists at key moments throughout history. Forms of Resistance shows how artists through the ages have used their talents to react to society. Through the explicit political and social context of their art, citizens and governments are addressed directly. It is not so much an act of artistic recognition as a political protestation or an open declaration of sympathy.

V22 Gallery, Ashwin Street, London, UK

THIS IS A 3D QUICKTIME IMAGE OF THE 4 ROOMS OF THE GALLERY AT ASHWIN STREET

TO VIEW OUR WORK IN ALL 4 SPACES CLICK ON THE PICTURE AND DRAG THE MOUSE TO MOVE AROUND THE SPACE. CLICK WHEN AN ARROW APPEARS AND YOU’LL MOVE THROUGH TO THE NEXT ROOM. ZOOM IN OR OUT FOR BETTER VIEW

Obscenity at V22 Ashwin Street in 2006

Photo Op and police boots
g8 gleneagles 2005

Photo Op by kennardphillipps as used by the Clandestine Rebel Clown Army at Falsane blockade during the week of G8 at Gleneagles, Scotland 2005

photos by Kristian Buus