“Gimme Shelter”  &  “Gimme Shelter”  2   2011 – Works

“Gimme Shelter”  &  “Gimme Shelter”  2   2011

Screenprinted acrylic on Hot Pressed Arches Aquarelle 300gsm, 24cm x 34cm.

When real soldiers train for real war in the virtual world of video games it is little wonder these two worlds collide on the battlefield.  This print explores the confluence of games and war, where there is no defined border between the two industries of war and entertainment.  The central image is from an American military video, released in 2010 by WikiLeaks. It shows a 2007 incident in Iraq in which a group of civilians were shot from an American Apache helicopter.   The footage and dialogue was disturbingly similar to a video game.  “Gimme Shelter” is a 1969 Rolling Stones anti-war song, recently used to promote a ‘first person shooter’ video game which became the highest earning entertainment release in history.