STATE OF THE NATIONS – 4W
kennardphillipps is a collaboration between Peter Kennard and Cat Phillips, working together since 2002 to produce art in response to the invasion of Iraq. It has evolved to confront power and war across the globe. The work is made for the street, the gallery, the web, newspapers & magazines, and aims to engage audiences in a direct manner and help them understand what’s happening in the world through visual means. The work is made as a critical tool that connects to international movements for social and political change. In State of the Nations, specially commissioned for Diffusion 2017, resistance to the status quo is embedded in their deconstruction of news images and narratives built from everyday materials, photomontage and text. kennardphillipps dig into the surface of words and images to visualise the connection between the oppressed majority and the political and financial elites of the everyday, remixing earlier work and creating new artwork addressing contemporary issues relating to Trump, Brexit, the refugee and migrant crisis and nuclear proliferation.