kennardphillipps - artists peter kennard and cat phillips

Award 2004

Award#4

Award#4

Award series of 15 pigment prints on 308gms cottonrag paper

oak framed 100cm x 72cm

Streetlevel Gallery, Glasgow 2004

view images from the gallery and more here

to view all prints from series Award in greater detail go to the print section

Welcome to the Occupation text by John Slyce

On March 12, 2003, George W Bush signed an executive order establishing the Global War on Terrorism Medals – one expeditionary, and one for combat service. In less than a week, Iraq would be

invaded. Section 2 of the order reads as follows: ‘There is hereby established the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal with suitable appurtenances. Except as limited in section 3 of this order, and under uniform regulations to be prescribed by the Secretaries of the military departments and approved by the Secretary of Defense, or under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal shall be awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States who serve or have served in military operations to combat terrorism, as defined by such regulations, on or after September 11, 2001, and before a terminal date to be prescribed by the Secretary of Defense.’

Late in February of 2004, the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall established the Iraq Medal. Early estimates were that some 48,000 would be issued, with at least 150 offered to qualifying members of the embedded media. As if to lend flesh to a line from Benjamin’s fragmentary notes for an unwritten book on Baudelaire – ‘Allegorical emblems return as commodities’ – you now can buy a genuine facsimile of an Iraq Medal on eBay for a little less than a fiver. The Iraq Medal has been struck for those who have served in what the MoD named ‘Operation Telic’. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary suggests someone in Whitehall might have been taking the piss: Telic a. M19. [Gk telikos final, f. telos end: see –ic] 1 Gram. Of a conjunction or clause: expressing purpose. M19. 2 Directed or tending to a definite end; purposive. L19. Telic finds its antonym in the word ecbatic which denotes a mere result or consequence. These paired terms are eerily shadowed by the values enumerated in those of instrumental and autonomous as applied to art.

Both members of kennardphillipps are committed artists and activists. The work before you in Award began on the streets in protest against an impending war long before any blood hit the scanner. kennardphillipps’ art has for long operated in fusing together seemingly disparate elements. The allegorical tension which binds kennardphillipps’ images together is located in the tangible recognition we feel when we realise that very little actually separates the combined fragments of, in the case of these works, death and glory. The military commemoration is perhaps the ultimate allegorical emblem. The Purple Heart, the United States’ oldest service medal decreed by Washington himself, represents an undisclosed personal sacrifice but has come to signify the loss of blood and limb. These images explode the architecture of a symbol. As the fragments of dust and oil, spit, blood, and bile settle, a clear and present picture of what actually stands behind this allegorical emblem forms. It is the suitable appurtenances of war lodged in hate, torture, exploitation, and death. The terminal date of these terms and categories will not be prescribed by any Secretary of Defense but by each of us – both individually and collectively.

The war on terror is of necessity a war without end. Do not be deceived. The only enemy worth having these days is one that is everywhere and yet nowhere. Rather than making anyone safe, the war on terror finds its ‘definite end’ in the reproduction of fear. Fear extends the politics of distraction beyond the limits of a sound bite to create unlimited space in which to pursue narrow interests and person profit. Do not be afraid. A line from an earlier war inaugurated by terror might be a guide: ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’

John Slyce