Tony Blair's Iraq War 'selfie' headlines art exhibition at the Imperial War Museum

Updated 16 October 2013 at 11:02 am

'Photo Op' by kennardphillips has become an iconic portrayal of the Iraq War. Peter Kennard and Cat Picton-Phillips began work together in the wake of the Iraq invasion in 2003. The famous image manipulation, which superimposes a picture of a grinning Tony Blair taking a 'selfie' on top of an image of a burning oil field, was created in response to the widespread public disapproval of the Iraq war. The picture is of course fake, but aptly summed up British sentiment regarding the war. (Kennardphillips)

'Another Country XV' by John Timberlake combines well known landscapes by artists such as Turner or Constable with nuclear mushroom clouds taken from sources in the Imperial War Museum's archives. He then constructed plastic spectators, placed them in front of the manipulated landscape and took a photograph. This is the resulting image, a romanticised landscape of a country at war. (John Timerblake/ Imperial War Museum)

'Olympic Games Sarajevo 1994' by Trio Sarajevo. When war broke out in Bosnia in 1992 the graphic design group Trio, made up of husband and wife Bojan and Dada Hadžihalilović with Lela Mulabegović Hatt, found themselves trapped in a four year siege of Sarajevo. Disheartened by the lack of worldwide interest in the conflict the group decided to produce darkly comic postcards satirising icons of pop culture such as Marilyn Monroe or Coca Cola to raise awareness. In this poster they draw on the famous image of US soldiers raising the US flag at Iwo Jima but reference the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, which tourists and visitors had flocked to. Just a decade later they felt the city had been abandoned by the world. (Trio Sarajevo/ Imperial War Museum)

'Camp Boundary' by Paul Seawright was taken in 2002 in response to the war in Afghanistan. The photograph depicts a seemingly empty and uninteresting landscape. But underneath the black earth are minefields rendering the area lethal and inaccessible. (Paul Seawright/ Imperial War Museum)

'Cinema Mural, Krampnitz' was taken by Angus Boulton between 1998 and 2006 as part of a series of photographs of former Soviet military bases in and around east Berlin. The bases had been abandoned when the Soviets left east Germany and were due to be demolished. The decaying buildings symbolise the downfall of a belief system that had taken hold of eastern Europe. (Angus Boulton/ Imperial War Museum)

'Unapproved Road 2' by Willie Doherty is a photograph of a makeshift road block on a border road in Northern Ireland. The cement blocks remind viewers of the significance of land territory in the region. (Willie Doherty/ Imperial War Museum)

'Fundstucke Kosovo 2000 - Jacke' by Frauke Eigen. The photojournalist travelled to Kosovo in 2000 shortly after the war ended. This jacket, ripped and dirtied in places, was uncovered from a mass grave of genocide victims. (Frauke Eigen/ Imperial War Museum)

'House of Osama Bin Laden' is an interactive video game installation by Langlands and Bell. In 2002 the artists were commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to respond to September 11 and the war in Afghanistan. They tracked down the abandoned home of Osama Bin Laden, the orchestrator of the 9/11 attacks, in Daruntah, eastern Afghanistan. The artists produced an interactive video game, allowing viewers to perform a fruitless hunt for Bin Laden. (Langlands & Bell and V/ SpaceLAB/ Imperial War Museum)

'Death Squad' by John Keane was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum as their official artist during the Gulf War in 1991. As portrayal of war and conflict is now heavily reliant on video and photographs critics argued paintings could not add anything meaningful to the public's understanding of conflict. Keane's painting of a group of soldiers carrying body bags, their faces concealed by sunglasses, shows a more personal and subjective response to war than video and photographs can portray. (John Keane/ Imperial War Museum)

'Blast' by Jack Milroy transforms a book about weapons into an explosive sculpture. (Jack Milroy/ Imperial War Museum)

'Photo Op' by kennardphillips has become an iconic portrayal of the Iraq War. Peter Kennard and Cat Picton-Phillips began work together in the wake of the Iraq invasion in 2003. The famous image manipulation, which superimposes a picture of a grinning Tony Blair taking a 'selfie' on top of an image of a burning oil field, was created in response to the widespread public disapproval of the Iraq war. The picture is of course fake, but aptly summed up British sentiment regarding the war. (Kennardphillips)

'Photo Op' by kennardphillips has become an iconic portrayal of the Iraq War. Peter Kennard and Cat Picton-Phillips began work together in the wake of the Iraq invasion in 2003. The famous image manipulation, which superimposes a picture of a grinning Tony Blair taking a 'selfie' on top of an image of a burning oil field, was created in response to the widespread public disapproval of the Iraq war. The picture is of course fake, but aptly summed up British sentiment regarding the war. (Kennardphillips)

The manipulated image of former Prime Minister Tony Blair taking a 'selfie' with his camera phone in front of a burning oil field in Iraq headlines an exhibition called 'Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War'. Hosted by the Imperial War Museums in Manchester, it is displaying works by 40 artists. The collection explores art, photography and installations made in response to the biggest conflicts of recent years. The exhibition closes February 23, 2014.