Roundels

I began this series during the brutal conflict in Syria, when indiscriminate bombing raids – at times using ordnance outlawed by international treaty – took the lives of countless civilians. These attacks were frequently carried out by warplanes and helicopters lacking clear identification markings (“roundels”), and were invariably followed by strenuous statements denying responsibility by the military powers involved. The Roundels series is an attempt to capture this deliberate deception, using the language of disruptive camouflage to create visual ambiguity where no such uncertainly should exist. The circular forms of these roundels also evoke a target’s concentric rings, consciously playing with the contradiction inherent in the idea of camouflaged targets. These ambiguous objects also serve as a reminder that many of the sites destroyed in bombing raids were schools, hospitals and residential blocks rather than “legitimate” military objectives.