Nick Crowe -Commemorative Glass - Operation Telic

I like the way Nick Crowe uses found imagery and completely changes its meaning by transforming it into hand engraved tracings etched into 2mm glass. Thus representation becomes very different to reality. Set on blackened shelves, with hidden illumination that transforms the soldiers into ghostly green figures that remind you of high tech infrared scanning systems for night warfare. By removing the colour and the texture of the original found images he has transformed them from smiling soldiers into menacing forces, weapons of war. He presents them in a deliberately crude way with gaffer-taped wiring hanging down to heighten the links with terrorism, bombing devices and rough and ready military offensives. They become a strong political statement questioning the invasion and occupation of Iraque code named Operation Telic by the British Forces.