Queen and Country

Few events in recent memory have had a greater impact on this country's art than the Iraq War. From countless slogans scrawled on street walls, to Mark Wallinger’s Turner Prize-winning replica State Britain, the conflict has left a searing mark on British culture. However, the majority of these reactions could be described as Protest Art – works deliberately positioned as scathing attacks against the circumstances surrounding the war. Though they are created from legitimate political concerns, they so often ignore the human reality that many families face, through fear or loss – feelings no doubt exacerbated by intense media coverage and the protest in general.

It is refreshing, then, to find an artist as high-profile as Steve McQueen (director of the acclaimed film Hunger) dealing with this reality. The project proposed is simple: for every fallen British soldier, a postage stamp bearing their face is made, and displayed. The actual piece is a solemn affair – a large wooden box, a giant’s coffin, in an empty room. On either side, drawers can be slid out, each one containing designs for a soldier, their face repeated in a grid.

Though oddly reminiscent of Warhol’s disaster series, the presentation of seemingly endless faces creates a contrasting effect: whereas for Warhol the mechanical reproduction is used to highlight the distance created by the media from the tragedy of death, the impact of McQueen’s faces are overpowering – for once, these lives are raised from a Newsnight statistic into flesh and blood. With every groan and slide, the drawers reveal another life, and with a brief glimpse, they are remembered. For some, the encounter may be overwhelming, and even for those with the most staunch political views, the experience is one that is heartening. Steve McQueen has gracefully addressed a shortfall in contemporary art, and with it perhaps made the most astounding political point of all – remembering what has been lost through all the brouhaha. Hopefully, if the project is accepted by Royal Mail, it will allow some closure for those who need it.