Dimensions: support: 396 x 576 mm
Copyright: © Colin Self. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Colin Self's "Bomber No. 1," a drawing in the Tate collection. I find its mechanical, almost insect-like quality unsettling. What do you make of this strange hybrid? Curator: It's a darkly witty piece, isn't it? Self seems to be dissecting the Cold War mentality, laying bare the bomber as both a symbol of power and a bizarre, almost dehumanized machine. Do you notice how the wings resemble circuit boards? Editor: Yes, I see that now! So, it's about technology overriding humanity? Curator: Precisely! The drawing hints at a future where war is less about people and more about cold, calculated mechanisms. It's a disturbing premonition, really. Editor: That's a chilling thought. I hadn't considered it that way. Thanks!
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tate about 2 months ago
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Colin Self’s works from the 1960s express his anxiety about nuclear war in a time of Cold War threat and extensive weapon testing. As a child growing up in Norwich during the Second World War, Self witnessed German Luftwaffe bombing raids, and his depictions of bombers are marked by an ambivalent reference to the horror of war, but also to children’s toys. For Bomber No.1, Self used industrial metal objects he found on a rubbish dump, and applied ink to them before passing them through the printing press, manipulating the traditional way of making etchings. Gallery label, August 2018
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