This, with 'The Goddess Appears in Newry', is one of the last two 'politcal' montages I made. Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space. I was born about an hour after he landed, and couldn't resist the Newry Gagarin pun & opportunity for pictures.

The "politically engaged" collage probably works best with that dialectic contrast of opposites; in this case our ability to fly to space and look at the world from afar or to use the same intelligence to do dirty war on each other.

The image of Gagarin is from a Ladybird book, the illustrations in which I've always enjoyed - so clear - gouache, I believe, from photos. It's a cross section of this capsule with him in it. It's a bit like the experience of driving through this border checkpoint in a car at night. As part of the peace process these fortifications ar supposed to be removed, and as I update (March 02) the complex has shrunk back from the road but there remain the hilltop towers.

Update: January 07- the observation posts and checkpoint are now all gone and a new final section of North-South motorway is being built almost over the site..