Dick Jewell: War & Peace
On 19 July 1941, Winston Churchill threw up his V for Victory – his index and middle finger spread apart while all his other fingers rested on his palm. The gesture spread as a rallying emblem for Europeans fighting Germany and its allies in the second world war. But if a driver were to overtake you today and stick two fingers up at you, you wouldn’t receive that as a symbol of solidarity and peace. You’d be rightly insulted.
When asked whether he minds whether passers-by throw their fingers up at his latest project, “War & Peace”, which will be displayed by CIRCA this evening, Dick Jewell laughs. “There’s a shot of me throwing them up backwards to Donald Trump,” he says. “But that’s a reflection of him throwing the same gesture.”