The Bastard Word Studies by Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, graphite on Fabriano paper

Fiona Banner's art explores the relationship between language and conflict. Her suite of drawings, The Bastard Word Studies, signifies how the failure of language fuels war.

First seeing military planes overhead at air shows and on childhood countryside walks, Banner became aware of their awe-inspiring power and publicly celebrated status. Recalling media coverage of the Vietnam War, and watching Hollywood war films, she began to question the unsettling contradiction between aircraft as festishised objects of beauty and of violent destruction. With letters shaped from twisted aircraft fragments, her aircraft alphabet constitutes an illegitimate, 'bastardised', language. For Banner, weapons negate the true purpose of language, which is to communicate and understand, and they are deployed when the language of negotiation fails. To emphasise this point, Banner represented aircraft that were still operational around the world - including from Britain, the USA and Russia - rather than depicting decommissioned or historic examples. Her contemporaneous focus precludes nostalgic or patriotic readings of the artwork while underscoring the peristent worldwide problem of war. Purchased from the Frith Street Gallery with the generous assistance of Art Fund, 2023. Copyright: Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press / RAF Museum.