Photomontage Today. Peter Kennard - ACE125.4

SECTION 2 Kennard’s home. Television. VO reading "A ceaseless succession of strange shapes and sounds. The darkness has an edge that grates the nerves of the sleeper…" Caption: "2 Constructing." Part of work by Kennard commenting on the Cold War. Caption: "Assembling components." Kennard explains how he made different versions of this photomontage which he wanted to point up "the futility of the [British] government’s plans for civil defence". Caption: "Using frames." Kennard explains how he added to an existing photograph of Henry Kissinger for a New Stateman cover on "The Kissinger Mind", and shows a similar picture from 1924 by Alexander Rodchenko, The Critic Ossip Brik. Kennard’s map of Britain with magnifying glass view of skeleton superimposed. He quotes E. P. Thompson writing on the issue of a set of stamps commemorating the anniversary of the Metropolitan Police, shortly after the death of Blair Peach. Kennard’s photomontage. Commentary says that here, "photomontage is used to provide a critique of reality. In its act of unmasking, montage becomes political." Caption: "‘The situation is complicated by the fact that a simple reproduction of reality rarely reveals anything about reality. A photograph of the Krupp works or G.E.C. factory tells us almost nothing about these institutions. The human relations and functions inside the factory are not explicit in a photograph… so something must be built up, something constructed, something artificially posed.’ Brecht." Caption: "Making the invisible visible." Kennard shows a photograph of the Dow Chemicals factory, pointing out that nothing in the photograph indicates that this factory made napalm used by American forces in the Vietnam war. He shows how he altered a photograph of a nuclear power station – adding missiles – to make the connection between nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Other images. Caption: "Changing images to change ideas." Kennard points out that both pro- and anti-nuclear groups use similar images, and shows how those images can also become commercialised. In his own work, he may still use similar shots but will add to them to try to show the destructive potential of nuclear power. Example.