Is this Art?

Steyr

Upside down Chrome Jag and Hangin' Harrier!

**PICS IN THE LINK**

To be honest id have rather them as good old static pieces.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10434348.stm

Tate unveils fighter jet artwork
By Tim Masters

Entertainment correspondent, BBC News

Two fighter jets that have seen active service have been turned into art in a new commission for Tate Britain.

Fiona Banner's work sees a Sea Harrier suspended vertically from floor to ceiling like a trussed bird.

In an adjoining gallery, a stripped and polished Jaguar jet plane lies belly-up on the floor.

Banner's past works include unedited descriptions of movies, including war films and pornographic tales.

The use of fighter jets recurs throughout her portfolio.

Harrier and Jaguar - commissioned for the Duveens Galleries - is her largest work to date. The two aircraft create a striking juxtaposition with the Tate's neo-classical surroundings.

Banner's fascination with fighter planes can be traced back to a moment in her childhood when she was walking in the Welsh hills with her father.

"It was so quiet and so beautiful and then suddenly out of nowhere came this Harrier jump jet and completely ripped up the sky and utterly changed the moment," she said.

"We were left with the words knocked out of us, wondering how something that was such a monster could be so beautiful."

Asked if she was a pacifist, Banner said: "The piece is more about our ambivalence to war and how on one level we loathe it and on another level we celebrate it."

The Sea Harrier, which is suspended from the ceiling by its tail, made its first flight in 1988. It was taken out of service after a crash-landing at Yeovilton in 2000.

Banner has hand-painted the aircraft's surface with feather markings.

The Sepecat Jaguar saw action in the Gulf in Operation Desert Storm in 1990-91.

At the time, one of the pilots painted the cartoon character Buster Gonad and his Unfeasibly Large Testicles (from Viz comic) on the nose of the plane. The aircraft is last believed to have flown in 2006.

Banner has stripped the aircraft to reveal a mirrored, metallic surface.

"The Jaguar's polish is important because you see yourself reflected in it - you can't detach yourself from the object," she said.

Banner refused to say how much the two aircraft had cost to obtain.

In 1994, the artist created a "wordscape" in which she transcribed the Tom Cruise film Top Gun into a frame-by-frame written account.

Harrier and Jaguar runs until 3 January at Tate Britain.

Steyr

Buster Gonad in better times.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK---Air/Sepecat-Jaguar-GR3A/0933791/&sid=944c98da04f0dc540c299aec360fa980

Delancey

Is this art ? Well , in my opinion it is a work with a profoundly scatological theme

Danbo!

Ugh, cant stand modern art bull ****. I lasted about 15 minutes in the Tate in London and had to leave.

"It was so quiet and so beautiful and then suddenly out of nowhere came this Harrier jump jet and completely ripped up the sky and utterly changed the moment," she said.

"We were left with the words knocked out of us, wondering how something that was such a monster could be so beautiful."

Ah feck off would ya

Turbulent Bill

I like them, especially the Jag - reminds me of an F-101 Voodoo or one of those other Century-series fighters with polished skin and clean lines. There are plenty of these about as bog-standard static displays, good to see the design being reinterpreted.

In my eyes it is art, both the original designs and how they're being presented.

Mr Benevolent

An insult to two fine aircraft. Stripped-down aircraft hulks are not art.

Steyr

Confab wrote: »

An insult to two fine aircraft. Stripped-down aircraft hulks are not art.

You know the RAF Still use the Jags as ground-taxi Aircraft at RAF/DCAE Cranwell, they Taxi from one ramp with "bombs" and other payloads on to another ramp where the payloads are taken off or some might be left on to show maybe a faulty munition didnt drop when supposed to and they then taxi back to where they started and thats basically a "Mission" minus the flying. The aircraft are maintained as they would be on an active RAF Base.

Its to teach RAF Tower Jockeys how to correctly move Aircraft on the Ramp/Taxi Area's, and also to provide specialist training for all RAF Engineer Officers, and to prepare them to take up their first productive appointments. They also conduct a fast taxi down the Runway to simulate a take off. The Jags are painted Jet Black.

Delancey

That level of maintenance on non-flying aircraft must cost the RAF a fortune ?

Dacian

delancey42 wrote: »

That level of maintenance on non-flying aircraft must cost the RAF a fortune ?

True but a lot less than the cost to train with and possibly damage actual frontline aircraft. They can write off an old Jag without hurting active squadron assets. And the jags do not to be airworthy,just taxiworthy.

Perhaps this is a sign of the strain on the RAF air assets?

Nice nugget of info Steyr.

Back OT: if I was passing I might just nip in quickly to snap a shot of the 2 aircraft. Am quite the philistine when it comes to Modern Art. Mad stuff it is.

Steyr

Dacian wrote: »

Perhaps this is a sign of the strain on the RAF air assets?

Or an idea of how to do stuff right before they go off to Operational bases, real world training if you will.

Dacian wrote: »

Nice nugget of info Steyr.

Thanks Dacian.:)

Turbulent Bill

Confab wrote: »

An insult to two fine aircraft. Stripped-down aircraft hulks are not art.

There's no disrespect to the aircraft in the installations, no anti-warplane or anti-airforce message. The artist seems to be facinated by fast jets (like most of us here ), and takes this to its natural conclusion by including them in her installation. The 'art or not' argument never goes anywhere but I'm happy to see the planes in a new context.

Steyr wrote: »

You know the RAF Still use the Jags as ground-taxi Aircraft at RAF/DCAE Cranwell, they Taxi from one ramp with "bombs" and other payloads on to another ramp where the payloads are taken off or some might be left on to show maybe a faulty munition didnt drop when supposed to and they then taxi back to where they started and thats basically a "Mission" minus the flying. The aircraft are maintained as they would be on an active RAF Base.

Its to teach RAF Tower Jockeys how to correctly move Aircraft on the Ramp/Taxi Area's, and also to provide specialist training for all RAF Engineer Officers, and to prepare them to take up their first productive appointments. They also conduct a fast taxi down the Runway to simulate a take off. The Jags are painted Jet Black.

That's an awful way to finish a plane's career, the equivalent of F1 cars being used to train car park attendants! Surely if there's no need to fly they could use a ground vehicle (with fake wings/fuselage) to do the same job? The Jag isn't an active type so there's little need to use real hardware.

Steyr

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

That's an awful way to finish a plane's career, the equivalent of F1 cars being used to train car park attendants! Surely if there's no need to fly they could use a ground vehicle (with fake wings/fuselage) to do the same job? The Jag isn't an active type so there's little need to use real hardware.

I think its a great way for them to finish their airframe life still in use without the flying obviously, besides what would you use to carry the Jag's payload? It adds so much more realism to see an Actual Fast jet with actual wings/payloads/hard points/fast taxi's et al instead of say a forklift or something else replacing it, perhaps they take it more seriously as its all of the above.