Surveillence

At Hardwick Gallery Cheltenham Patrick Lowry instaled a full-size replica General Atomics MQ-1 Predator drone. He has taken the opportunity of exhibiting in Cheltenham, the home to the Government Communications Headquarters, GCHQ, to examine aspects of surveillance and in particular its context within contemporary military conflict. Like so many man made objects that have been developed with functionality as the primary objective there is a particular and engaging aesthetic to these UVAs which Lowry explores in his replication of the MQ-1 Predator, setting up a dichotomy between engaging aesthetics and the knowledge that this is an object designed with the sole intention to seek out and kill perceived enemies hundreds of miles from a safe ‘piloted’ point of control.