Mar 20, 2017
Mark Wallinger’s “State Britain” that precisely replicated the protest of Brian Haw is, some think, “a religious work”. Protest continued via art, it transmute a political protest of conscience into yet another non-political act that also embodies the spirit of the age. Resonant with war memorials - now seeming quite past their time - the installation appropriates the work of another, or rather the life’s work of another, and makes it into a copy that is, as is often the case, more real than “reality”. As Tiff said, Haw’s protest was an anti-war memorial, and its replicated version recalls hyper-realism. It is a fortuitous act, and a compassionate one.
