'Call of Duty' Remembrance Sunday, Liverpool - 13 November 2011
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This project is about documenting signs of war and symbols
of Britain as a warring nation found within our contemporary
urban landscape. It is also about power in a culture where
a condition of almost continual war has become a normalised
state. British military personnel have been killed in action
almost every year since the United Kingdom was constituted.
The UK has the world's third largest defense budget after
USA and China. Currently Britain's biggest manufacturing exporting
industry is based on military armaments and in 2011 the UK
was the world's 6th largest arms exporter. It is estimated
by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute that
76% of total world expenditure is spent on defense budgets.
In England many customs, buildings and monuments reinforce
and validate war as a normal part of British culture. Monuments
and other symbols of war are so numerous in Britain they have
become part of our cultural landscape. They express our sense
of national identity and are strongly linked to the ‘marriage’
between Crown, Church, State, Military and Imperialism. This
project explores aspects of our culture and physical representations
of the 'establishment' that reinforce the place of war and
military power in contemporary Britain.
The first pictures for this project were made in the City
of Liverpool where many striking examples of signs of war
and symbols of Britain's power as a warring nation can be
found. Liverpool has more memorials to war and monuments symbolising
heroes or battles won, in one square mile, than any city I
know - with the possible exception of the area of Westminster
in London. New public war memorials are unveiled in the city
regularly. A new statue for The King's Liverpool Regiment,
'Liverpool Pals', is scheduled to be erected for the centenary
of WWI.
These public monuments are respectful and emotional reminders
to the many lives lost at war and proudly celebrate those
who fought for crown and country. They are permanent symbols
of British conflict and are a constant reminder that we have
a long history as an active warring nation.
© John Davies 2012
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