I designed the new Royal Navy recruitment poster that has started appearing around London. Budding recruits should visit royalnavy.org.uk for more information. Big thanks to Special Patrol Group for installation help. More photos and updated project page here.
Nuclear bombs are suicide bombs - it is impossible to use these weapons without also killing ourselves.
A country with nuclear weapons is prepared to destroy the world rather than lose a war. With a single weapon system we hold the planet hostage by the sort of terror you only get from thermonuclear missiles.
Terrorists are willing to commit suicide to brutally murder innocent people, but so are we. In fact, we’re about to spend £200 billion on upgrading our ability to do so.
The British government refuses to rule out first-use of nuclear weapons and has stated it may use them even if its ‘vital interests’ are threatened.
Due to NATO membership and our alleged Special Relationship, we’re also committed to a nuclear suicide pact with America.
The posters point budding recruits to a website at royalnavy.org.uk which demonstrates how the crew of a nuclear submarine must be prepared to destroy human civilisation on command.
Last weekend saw Pocket Money Loans setting up shop in the middle of Newcastle city centre. The reactions were mixed to say the least.
I've done this project in five different locations now. Like the first installation at Atom Gallery (London) and the store at Roskilde festival, the Newcastle store was intended to appear as if this might actually be happening, mixed in among the shops. Whereas Dismaland and Glastonbury were both set up in areas where people expected sarcastic art around every corner.
My favourite reactions in Newcastle included the man walking past as we'd just set up who said "Oh shit off!" to himself as he passed by. And the man who came in and told me I was sick and this is sick before running off. I had to chase him down the road shouting "It's not real!" - although the prank element is a large part of it, the joke isn't supposed to be on the people who get mad about it, they're the good guys.
Massive thanks to everyone at the Newbridge Project who made it happen, especially Hannah, Dean, Dave, Joe, Charlotte and Rebecca. Also massive thanks to Tom Straughan for helping me set up, David Jones for his driving skills, Roxxi, Lucy Glover, Skotty (JaZZ RiOT), Charlotte and Rebecca for getting inside the mascot costumes.
I was interviewed on BBC Newcastle about the project. You can listen below.
It was also featured in the Chronicle local paper, click the image below to go to the story.
On Sunday I had a stall of my work at Momentum's The World Transformed arts and politics festival at The Black-E in Liverpool. Some of my anti-army recruitment work was on display: 'Join the Army' and my 'Make Stuff Dead' mugs along with flyers for Action Man: Battlefield Casualties. This work is supported and endorsed by 100s of veterans, but why would the right-wing press let that get in the way of an opportunity to smear Jeremy Corbyn? My favourite part of the whole thing was Tory MP Johnny Mercer calling me a "Britain hating anarchist who knows the value for nothing" in The Sun's online article. The story was originally posted by Guido Fawkes and picked up by the Daily Mail who went fully haywire and claimed the stall was actually at the Labour party conference. But the journamislm required to find out that wasn't the case would have detracted from the DISGUSTED OUTRAGE.
It was also strange to see the press such as The Times claim soldiers were deeply offended by my 'Make Stuff Dead' mugs while my twitter feed was full of soldiers asking me where they could buy one. (Here, in case you were wondering)
Today Veterans for Peace UK have released a statement about the press reaction to this work. It is a powerful and eleoquent refutation of the media's use of soldiers for political ends. You can read the full thing on their website. Here's an excerpt:
"Let us be clear. The superb ‘Army, Be The Meat’ project and the ‘Action Man: Battlefield Casualties‘ films, which were launched 18 months ago, are nothing to do with Labour or Momentum.The credit belongs to the artist who conceived and created it and, spiritually, to the hundreds of veterans who endorsed it.
This work was conceived in response to years of dishonest army recruitment material and we continue to endorse it.The establishment response has shown two things.Firstly, it has highlighted the important and popular work done by Darren Cullen and VFP to educate people about the brutal reality of modern warfare and the possible negative outcomes of military service . For this we are grateful.
Secondly it has brought into the open the amateur journalism of sections of the press and the willingness of the elite to exploit soldiers and veterans for political capital.We might linger over the appalling journalism involved in this pathetic hit piece. In their jingoistic ardour for clicks, the reporters clearly did not even bother to check into the background of the project.
That this project was backed by hundreds of veterans – many of whom bear the wounds of active service in wars from D-Day to Libya – was as difficult to discover as typing words into a search engine and pressing enter.
We might also note that Johnny Mercer and Dan Jarvis, both former military officers turned politicians, both self-appointed “veteran’s champions”, used the Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper as a platform to attack the project and, by extension, attack the veterans involved in it.
This is the same newspaper group whose senior editorial staff acquired the personal details of dead soldiers, apparently by paying MoD officials."
Action man: Battlefield Casualties - made in association with Veterans for Peace UK by Darren Cullen and Price James.
