Graham Goldwater & Alexander Cooper: A Model War

About

This new exhibition is the opening event of the Moose on the Loose Biennale of Research, and explores themes of war, conflict and memory. The narrative is constructed through the battered remnants of toy soldiers, the documentation of World War I reconstructive facial surgery and the visual language of aircraft recognition. Goldwater and Cooper have collaborated in the concept and making of A Model War. Goldwater's collection of battered lead toy soldiers have been documented. Large-scale photographs of these enigmatic and timeworn figures are positioned alongside photographs of drawings by Herbert Cole, an artist who worked with the surgeon Harold Gillies, documenting facial injuries and their subsequent surgical reconstruction. Collectively, these images symbolise the military body as it is scarred and incised by the violence of conflict. Cooper's work draws a parallel between the identification of letterpress typefaces and the use of silhouette to identify aeroplanes. Aircraft recognition was first introduced during World War I to determine friend from foe and was employed across a wide range of formats, from posters to playing cards, manuals to books, models and interactive volvelles. Examples of aircraft recognition ephemera are exhibited with reinterpretations that utilise their methods to enable the identification of letterpress typefaces. Battered lead type has been re-cast as aeroplanes, each bearing the name of its originating typeface. The cast planes have gone full circle, and have been reproduced as silhouettes to bring the project to a natural conclusion.