Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

I recently visited the Herbert Gallery, Coventry to view their latest exhibition, 'Caught in the Crossfire'. My new design brief at uni is to create a personal response to warfare, and so witnessing a wide variety of 'war' themed artwork was the perfect place to start.

The exhibition had a range of traditional and contemporary pieces of artwork, ranging from paintings, tapestries, video, sculpture, collage, photography/photo montage, textiles and 3D models. This was very helpful, as the wide range of work really opened up my creativity and gave me a variety of ideas for my own response. The artists below stood out to me the most.

Al Johnson's 'Roaring Girls' series really grabbed my attention. The way she has juxtaposed a gun with a cushion, I think is quite hard-hitting, as she has made a harsh, powerful weapon become something soft, cosy and comforting. She has done this as a metaphor for highlighting the involvement of women in frontline fighting. She produced a series of three cushions, each based on a different type of gun, and all three are titled as women's names, 'Sadie', 'Brenda' and 'Betty'. Even the names of them suggest kindness and motherliness, which again, when coupled with the image a gun, doesn't seem to comprehend or make any sort of logical sense.

'The Great Game' by War Boutique also caught my eye because once again, it's using the idea of textiles being something warm and nurturing, but giving it a harsh purpose/message that doesn't quite tie in with how it has been executed. I am contemplating on using textiles as a way to illustrate my own views on warfare, as I really think this juxtaposition theme creates an emotional response to the work.

The final artist whose work I liked is Kennard Phillipps. I love print based collage work anyway, and so his series 'Award' was something I could relate to. The textures of the different materials that have been used really make this series feel gritty, dirty and real. I see it as a metaphor for what war is like, dark, miserable and decaying. Also, the fact that it is mainly only black and white, makes the areas of red stand out even more, highlighting the war themes of bloodshed and anger in such a way that cannot be ignored.