The London underground poster campaign for the Iraq: How, Where, For Whom? exhibition led with Photo-Op by kennardphillipps, a photomontage of Tony Blair photographing a wall of smoke and flames on his mobile phone.
One unnamed passenger at Green Park complained directly to Transport for London earlier this month, which has led to the entire campaign, 100 posters, being removed from London Underground.
The artists’ kennardphillipps have commented:
‘It seems that for TFL the Iraq War is not for us to think about and that Blair is not only beyond criticism but his actions while he was in office cannot even be acknowledged. What affords Tony Blair such protection when he is now merely another multi-millionaire business man amongst many?
This is a case of censorship pure and simple. Photo-Op, our photomontage, has been reproduced in numerous magazines and newspapers. It has been on show in Tate Modern and bought for their permanent collections by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Imperial War Museum and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
It is not a violent image, it merely shows flames and smoke and a man with a mobile – surely much less violent than many movie posters plastered around the underground. Yet it is deemed to be too dangerous for passengers. It is as if they might rise up in revolt and take over the underground if they saw such an image!.’
The artists and organisers object very strongly to this clear act of censorship, which removes a poster on purely political grounds, while undermining the principles of free artistic expression. The poster itself does not in way breach TFL’s own advertising rules.
The exhibition is on until 8th June, open Tues-Sat 11-6pm. More info