The Etiquette of the Arms Trade
- Submitting institution
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Leeds Beckett University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 19
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- The Peace Museum, Bradford
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- -
- Year of first exhibition
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Request to ‘double-weight’ the output because it includes a year-long solo exhibition at the Bradford Peace Museum (BPM) and book funded by the Independent Social Research Foundation, an article, and two book chapters. Gibbon was the curator and artist in the exhibition, author of the book, co-author of the article, and author of the two book chapters. An edited selection of material from the BPM exhibition was included in group exhibitions in neue Gessellshaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) Berlin, the Ruhr Museum Essen, and the Platform Gallery, Belfast.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The UK and US regularly sell weapons to repressive regimes. Gibbon uses drawing and performance to research how these deals are normalized through etiquette. The arms industry is usually researched in the Social Sciences using reason. Gibbon’s research is unique in using art to identify how arms deals are legitimized aesthetically.
Gibbon visits arms fairs in Europe and the Middle East by dressing up as a security consultant. Once inside she draws and collects complementary gifts. She has produced 75+ sketchbooks between 2014 - 2020 depicting a string quartet in the shadow of a tank, suits, handshakes, and cracks in the polite façade. Gifts include sweets with slogans, and stress-balls in the shape of bombs and grenades.
Gibbon was awarded an ISRF fellowship to curate an exhibition of her research at BPM (2018 - 2019), and book (2018). She has written a chapter (2020) situating her method of exhibiting the gifts in relation to Dada readymades, and an article (Gibbon and Sylvester, 2017) and chapter (Gibbon, 2016) proposing art as a method to research war. The research has been exhibited in Berlin (2019), London (2019), Essen (2019), Belfast (2017), Farnham (2017), Bristol (2014). Papers were given in Florence (2018), Loughborough (2017), Valenciennes (2015); talks at BPM (2018), University of Gloucester (2019, 2017), Lancaster University (2017, 2014), RWA (2014), Sheffield University (13/05/2014), UWE (2014).
Gibbon has been interviewed about the project by Frieze (10/09/19), Middle East Eye (07/09/19), Art Net (05/09/19), Folket i Bild (03/2019), BBC World Service (28/04/18, 29/07/14); BBC Radio 4 (08/05/18), The Guardian (11/04/18; 27/07/14) and Al Jazeera (22/08/14). Art Net suggested Gibbon’s research offer new insights into the secretive arms industry, ‘The artist, Jill Gibbon exposes the surreal world of an arms fair where the champagne flows amid military hardware and ‘less lethal’ weapons’ (2019).
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
