Anti-war campaigner comes to Tate

BBC
Jan. 16, 2007

Brian Haw, who has held an anti-war vigil outside the Houses of Parliament for six years, has been immortalised in art in London's Tate Britain gallery.

Police seized Mr Haw's placards last year, saying he was in breach of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.

Now former Turner Prize nominee Mark Wallinger has recreated the protestor's camp, and his banners, in the Tate.

The gallery falls within a 1km zone around Parliament in which unauthorised demonstrations are prohibited.

Wallinger has placed his exhibition, called State Britain, half inside and half outside the exclusion zone - which is marked on the floor.

It consists of Mr Haw's makeshift tarpaulin shelter, posters, boards, photographs, peace flags and messages from well-wishers.

Many of the banners, with slogans such as No More War and Baby Killers, are painstaking recreations of those seized last May.

Although Mr Haw had been given permission to stage his protest, he had broken a condition whereby his anti-war signs, which were spread over 40m, had to be scaled back to just 3m.

A court was told last month that police feared Mr Haw could be exploited by terrorists wanting to bomb Westminster.

A Tate spokesman said: "In bringing back into the public domain a reconstruction of Haw's protest before its curtailment, Wallinger raises challenging questions about issues of freedom of expression and the erosion of civil liberties in Britain today."