On this day, the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, we are privileged to have an interview with and an auto biographical contribution from Peter Kennard, world renowned for his photomontages. He has also very kindly given us access to 36 images from his collection depicting war in general but Afghanistan and Iraq more specifically.
Can you tell us of the genesis for your love of the photographic and some original inspirations?
PK. I studied painting and still use paint in connection with photography. I began working seriously with photography in 1968 in response to the protest demonstrations against the Vietnam war which I took part in in London where I lived. I wanted to find a way to connect my political activity with my art and found that by making paintings about what was happening in the world I was too concerned with the actual paint to be able to approach the subject directly. Paint as a medium was too fluid and expressive for the subject. I started using photographs, which, because they are a trace of reality take you back to the the subject you are depicting. I was then able to use found images both from the war in Vietnam and the responses to the protests against the war mainly in Britain and the USA where the protesters were being brutally attacked by the police in London and the National Guard in the USA where four protesters were killed by the National Guard at Kent State University.
You have become renowned for photomontage. What is it that attracts you specifically about this method?
PK. Photomontage for me is stronger as a tool of protest and social critique than painting because the photographic nature of the medium allows it to be reproduced in a number of different contexts without it becoming a reproduction of an image as it would be if it was a painting. It’s very important to me to reach a general audience as well as the more specialised audience who go to art galleries. So my photomontages are available for the anti-war movement, human rights organisations etc to be used on banners, t-shirts, street posters, badges placards and in magazines and newspapers. It is the dissemination of my images to people, especially young people, who are demanding social change and peace that is as important to me as the the images in themselves.
What contribution would you identify that photomontage has played in political protest and is it having a lasting impact?
PK. I have been around long enough to know that my work has encouraged people to join protest movements, that the simplicity and directness of the photomontages has moved them to want to change things. A lot of people have told me that especially in the early 1980s when my anti-nuclear posters were very visible both in the street, in newspapers and hanging in kitchens`( held up by fridge magnets), that the images encouraged them to protest against nuclear weapons, So I do think they didn’t so much change people thoughts but rather enabled people to see the madness of the nuclear arms race in a pictorial form. The work helped people to see more clearly what they already knew, the horror of war, and then to act on it. As to whether my work has changed the situation in the world the answer is no, not in itself. It is part of the visual lexicon for people who do want to speak truth to power and is therefore plays a small part of the ongoing struggles.
Tell us about the conception and role of @earth
PK. @earth is the culmination of my attempts to make a completely visual book that can be understood globally and is available as cheaply as possible in a pocket-book rather than a coffee-table book form. I was lucky in getting Tate Publishing to produce it as they had a strong understanding of photomontage and have some of my photomontage originals in their collection. The cover of @earth just has the @ sign around an image of the earth so that there are no words in a specific language and each chapter is designated by the image of a computer folder opening to reveal its subject in image form. It uses the language of photomontage to tell a story without words of how power and the abuse of power affects both people and the environment. It consists of photomontage essays on the eco-crisis (including the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster which was happening when the book was being made), human rights abuses, surveillance, corporate greed, war and the arms-race. New digital photomontages, made with the assistance of Tarek Salhany are combined with earlier cut and paste images, some of which i made as much as 40 years ago but which are still relevant today. @earth is part of my ongoing attempt to make easily accessible images that encourage critical thinking and protest against what we are doing to our planet and its peoples. I don’t believe art in itself can change the world but do believe that it can be a tool to be used by activists. I consider myself as an activist artist. The work attempts to makes visible the underlying structures of society in a form that doesn’t involve the reading of complex texts. I am part of the global struggle against the march of power that is destroying everything and everybody that gets in its way, and my ammunition is photomontage.
Do you have a favoured medium for the presentation of your art?
PK. I don’t consider the best way to present my work, I try and find every way possible, from a lapel badge to a museum. I recently went to the Tate Gallery which is showing a couple of my photomontages and saw a school group who were making drawings based of them. I spoke to some of them and they were doing a project on war and were going to use my things as a basis for their own work. The museum then becomes a place that inspires what could end up on the street. Maybe one of those kids images will stick their own picture from the project onto a placard and take it on an anti-war demo. I have seen lots of placards on demos over the years that people have made based on my images. In other words, i don’t believe in a hierarchy for where the work is placed. I am living in a society where every spare centimetre of public space is more and more under the ownership of corporate advertising. As an artist/activist I have to find every available surface to fight their monopoly.
Has your work ever been censored?
PK. I have had a number of experiences where my work has been censored, what follows is one example. In November 2003, I was asked by Damon Albarn to produce an image symbolising the concept of ‘Peace on Earth’. The image was to be projected on a Public building in the City of London at Christmas. It was one of a number of projections to appear on buildings as part of the ‘Orange Brighten Up London’ campaign co-organised by Bob Geldof and sponsored by the telecommunications company Orange. I created a photomontage, using as its basis a painting of the Virgin Mary in the National Gallery, London. I sent it to the organisers and waited. There was a deafening silence and on the day it was meant to be projected they showed an image of a Christmas pudding instead. The next day, Nianh Byrne, head of Media Relations at Orange said that even though she found the image ‘absolutely fantastic’ she was looking for ‘something that people from little children to grandparents could appreciate’ and ‘ this is not about censorship but purely sensitivity’. The fact that I had turned the Virgin Mary’s halo into a peace symbol was too much for Orange whose mission statement reads ‘ we are ready to push boundaries and take risks’. The photomontage was originally called ‘ Peace on Earth’ but henceforth it was known as ‘Peace on Earth banned by Orange’
Auto biography of photo montage
Since the 1970s I have been committed to making photomontage and mixed media work that deals with social, political and environmental conditions. I have tried to visualise the production and consumption of power. In earlier work it was mainly military and political power, more recently it is the impact and unsustainability of fossil fuels and growing industrial pollution.
I have tried through the use of photomontage to argue that the attempt of the few to dominate the majority and exploit global resources has led to wars and systemic crises of the economy and the environment.
I aim to reach a global non-specialist audience through dissemination of my work via exhibitions, books, street posters, newspapers, postcards and the internet. I work independently, but I see my work as a visual counterpart to the global struggles against social and environmental exploitation. I therefore encourage my work to be used by organisations that campaign on issues, including human rights (Amnesty), nuclear weapons (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) and the environment (Greenpeace).
Through the use of photomontage I try and connect single clicks of the camera shutter to create a visual language that can be understood globally. Two clicks of the camera shutter can be brought together to create a third meaning that exposes cause and effect. Breaking down elements in photographs, cutting them up and reconstituting them allows a critical narrative of opposing forces to be presented visually. This encourages the viewer to think critically about the consequences of our actions on the asphyxiating planet.
While working as working as an artist I have also taught photography and fine art part-time, for thirty years. I see teaching as an integral part of my work. When I have exhibitions in public spaces I undertake workshops with different age groups who often have had no previous experience of combining imagery as a way of personal expression. A society based on image saturation creates a feeling of disempowerment. I have experienced, through leading many workshops, especially with young people, how empowering it is for them to take images from their everyday life and combine them with images from the wider society.
Working with the general public as well as photography and fine art students I have witnessed people make socially critical connections through the constructive fluidity of photomontage and assemblage. Using scissors and paste, Photoshop, everyday detritus or their combination, there is a growing need to visualise the urgency of everyday experience.
It is important for artists to act as early warning systems, be the canary down the mine, imagining through images the end result of the direction in which we are heading and to picture people struggling to find another way. I attempt to do this through my teaching and my work.
Dorset Eye wishes to thank Peter for his contribution to the 10th anniversary publications looking back over the ten years since the invasion of Iraq.
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