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Artist who sketches undercover at arms fairs has work displayed at Yorkshire museum
Jill Gibbon sketching at an arms fairs
Dr Jill Gibbon, Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Architecture and Design, will have her exhibition of drawings of missiles, gas canisters and guns on show at the Bradford Peace Museum.
Jill, who has been drawing arms fairs since 2007, originally applied for a pass to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) in London and got in under the guise of a “war artist”. She was able to attend arms fairs for several years as a war artist, but eventually a security guard noticed that she was drawing the dealers as well as the weapons and escorted her out.
“I have been involved in the peace movement since the 1980s when I first moved to Leeds as a student,” said Jill. “My work and my drawing has always been about peace and activism, and for a long time I would demonstrate with other protestors outside the arms fairs.
“I was frustrated by the fact that war art mostly concentrates on zones of conflict, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and wanted to share an insight into the arms fairs, where ultimately the conflict begins.”
To ensure she was able to attend future arms fairs and continue her sketching, Jill adopted a fake persona, created a fake company and website, and applied under a different name. This gave her access to DSEI in 2013, and continues to work in arms fairs in France and the Middle East.
However, when she applied to DSEI in 2015, she found out her name had been associated with a protest and she was not allowed in.
She added: “In between the machine guns, tear gas and missiles, tables are laid with champagne and grapes while a string quartet plays Mozart on the back of a military truck.
“The people who attend these events are from repressive regimes and countries in aggressive wars, but the arms trade remains relatively under the radar in the UK.
“My exhibition and book will hopefully shed some light on this secretive trade, raising public awareness of the business of war and how the arms trade works.”
The Arms Trade: 10 Years Drawing in Arms Fairs is open at the Bradford Peace Museum 13 April – 28 June.
Jill’s book The Etiquette of the Arms Trade is due to be released in mid-May and can be pre-ordered from www.jillgibbon.co.uk.