Art Cast

Art Cast
Series 2 Episode 7: Peter Kennard

Art Cast is a podcast presented by Matt Gee, artist… and Subject Leader for Fine Art at the Chelsea Centre, Morley College. This podcast is a series of informal discussions with artists, designers and musicians about their work, lifestyle and how they have adapted during the current crisis we live in. For this episode I’m delighted to welcome Photography Degree students Kathryn McGeary, Danielle Kalinovskis and Maria Green.

Peter is currently professor of Political Art at the Royal College of Art. He is most renowned for his iconic photomontages comprising of various motifs such as missiles, gas masks,  bombs and images of earth. He created work for the posters used by the Campain for Nuclear Disarment (otherwise known as the CND) used on campaigns in the 1970s and 80s. These works included a re-hash of John Constables The Hay Wain, and was called Haywain with Cruisemissiles, a transposition of Constables painting with Cruise missiles ready to launch on the cart. This work highlighted anxieties and tensions in British society during the missile deployment of the 1980s where the East and West stand-off had the potential to push towards nuclear disaster.

Another work Kennard is famous for, a photomontage called Photo Op  which was created in Photoshop using an image of Tony Blair taking a selfie during the 2005 General Election campaign. This has then been re-hashed to look as if Tony Blair is taking a selfie against a backdrop of burning oil. It was described by The Guardian as “the definitive work of art about the war”. Kennard says he was trying to change the world and “portray Iraq as it happened and not wait until afterwards and make a history painting”.

In 2013 He expanded his methods of dissemination by sharing images through online platforms such as Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter. His G8 Protest Posters involved him sharing images “designed for protest”. These were created in reaction to the 39th G8 summit , Kennard had encouraged the public to “print, Tweet, Facebook, email and share these images as a sign of protest”

The first major retrospective of Kennard’s work was held at the Imperial War Museum for a year from May 2015.The show then moved to mac birmingham in 2016

Most recently in november 2021 he exhibited at Trongate 103 in Glasgow to coincide with the COP 26 summit, the show was titled: Code Red Cop 26.

 
Just a reminder, you can listen back to Season 1 which includes the previous 7 episodes on the Morley Radio website, which included artist support pledge founder Matthew Burrows, Goldie, and Morley Chelsea alumni Susan Collis. The first five episodes of Season two are also available with Andy Holden, Russel Shaw Higgs, Mira Calix, Barry Reigate and Helen Kirkum.