08 June 2010

queen and country

Queen and Country: a project by Steve McQueen is currently being exhibited at the national portrait gallery in london, and I wish I was traveling back in the next couple of weeks so I could go.
Queen and Country takes the form of a large cabinet containing a series of facsimile postage sheets bearing portrait heads of soldiers who lost their lives in the conflict in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. The ultimate goal of the project is to persuade Royal Mail to issue real stamps in commemoration of individual service personnel who have died in the current conflict in Iraq.

McQueen's idea behind the project is getting the images into the nation's bloodstream. The only way a person can appear normally on a stamp is if you are a member of the royal family or if you are dead. McQueen says "I don't know who is more deserving to be on a stamp than someone who has fought for their Queen and Country. Tell me if i'm wrong. If I'm wrong, fine, then I'll quit"
Let's hope he doesn't stop this fight because he is RIGHT!
Older Woman Looking Down by Bridget Riley, c.1950 - © Bridget Riley 2009
image credit - david parry via NPG


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