Michael Rakowitz, April is the cruellest month, 2021
(excerpt)
Back in Margate a volunteer from the Turner, tablet in hand, is asking the sheltering audience what their thoughts are on the new sculpture. An aggregate of chalk, sand, concrete and other materials, it’s embedded with military medals and items donated by veterans and local residents. A local man turns to me to say that while he personally loves it, some think it “an insult to those serving Queen and country”. This stems from the fact that the figure is pointing inland in the direction of parliament, where the decision to invade Iraq was made, not at some enemy across the water. It’s in striking contrast to a 19th-century memorial of a lifeguard nearby gazing out to sea.