Artwork
Award
Award is a print by Peter Kennard. It dates from 2004 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Peter Kennard’s print *Award* from 2004 uses war medals to question conflict. The medals are torn and distressed, scanned until the images blur and fade.
This isn’t just art. It’s raw protest. The artists threw rags and flags on the scanner, then bled on it. The process feels violent, like the war it protests.
Look up this artist next: Kennard, Peter
Overview
Award is a print by Peter Kennard, created in 2004, that critiques conflict using war medals as its primary subject.
Subject & Meaning
The print recontextualizes war medals to question the glorification of war, specifically referencing the 2003 American invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.
Technique & Style
Kennard, assisted by Cat Picton Phillipps, employed a distressed scanning process, deliberately degrading the images of medals to convey the brutality of war.
History & Provenance
Award is an enlarged version of one of 15 plates from a portfolio addressing the Iraq War, also held in the V&A collection.
Artist & collection
Artist
Peter Kennard (born 17 February 1949) is a London-born and based photomontage artist and Professor of Political Art at the Royal College of Art.
