The Art Fund is bringing Queen and Country to St George’s Hall, where it will be on display from 5 September until 31 October 2008.
Commissioned by the Imperial War Museum , Queen and Country was created by official war artist Steve McQueen in collaboration with 137 families whose loved ones have lost their lives in Iraq .
The work commemorates British servicemen and women who have lost their lives in the conflict and consists of a cabinet containing a series of facsimile postage sheets, each one dedicated to a member of the armed forces killed in Iraq . Corporal Ben Nowak, a Royal Marine from Speke in Liverpool , is one of the soldiers featured in the work. He died aged 27 in a bomb attack near Basra , Southern Iraq .
Until the stamps are officially issued by Royal Mail the artist considers Queen and Country to be incomplete. The Art Fund is spearheading the campaign to gain public support for the project and visitors to St George’s Hall will be invited to sign The Art Fund’s online petition asking Royal Mail to publish the stamps. Mr Michael McEvett, Corporal Nowak’s uncle, is one of the 13,000 people who have so far signed the petition in support of the campaign.
Steve McQueen was born in London in 1969. He won the Turner Prize in 1999 and was awarded an OBE in 2002. His first feature film Hunger won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year and he has been selected to represent Britain at the 53rd Venice Biennale.
Queen and Country by Steve McQueen
5 Sept – 31 Oct
St Georges Hall
Opening times tbc
Image: Corporal Ben Nowak, Royal Marines, died 12 November 2006 aged 27
