Parade

The prevailing interpretation of Fiona Banner’s work is that it’s “about” language, meticulous archiving, and, quite frequently, war. If airplanes are present, it’s partly because, penetrating space and phallic in form, they reflect the subsumed masculine eroticism of battle. These war machines are dreadful, majestic, sentimental, and sadistic, triggering both Eros and Thanatos.

In Parade, 201 Airfix models of the fighter jets in active service worldwide in 2006 hang clustered from the ceiling, transforming these collectible toys into carriers of complex narratives. These models, stripped of national association and uniform in tone and color, silently convey the violence of domination through seemingly innocuous objects. Suspended in mid-flight above the viewers’ heads, they exude a sleek and austere presence. Revered as icons of military might, they reflect the deep-seated cultural and political dispositions glorifying wartime heroism and patriotic sacrifice. While evoking fear and terror, they also elicit a sense of childlike wonder and obsession. This ambiguity prompts reflection on society’s fixation with war imagery in media and cultural artifacts and the tension between violence and death on the one hand and seduction and fascination on the other. Such fascination is perpetuated by the military-industrial complex’s narrative that civilization and democracy rely on the fittest armaments and air superiority for survival.

Language further naturalizes military planes, with soldiers and films referring to them as “birds” and assigning nature-related names like albatross, hornet, hind, cayuse, eagle, panther, osprey, puma, warthog, and bear—along with climatic phenomena such as tornados and Chinooks. This efficient linguistic trait suggests that, on some unconscious level, war is an extension of nature.

(Wall label, exhibition Ecologies of Peace, April 26, 2025 - March 3, 2025; Co-organized by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary and C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía; Curated by Daniela Zyman)