State Britain

State Britain is a meticulous recreation of a 40-metre long display which had originally been situated around peace campaigner Brian Haw's protest outside the Houses of Parliament against policies towards Iraq. , one of the images in Haw's display recreated by Mark Wallinger in State Britain. The original display consisted of over 600 items, many donations from the public, including paintings, placards, photos of families, banners, posters, graffiti, traffic cones, tarpaulins, temporary fencing and toys. These included a poster, "Blair Lies, Kids Die!", a banner, "Baby Killers", photos of babies maimed and burnt in missile attacks, a statement that parliament spent seven hours discussing the war in Iraq and 700 hours discussing fox-hunting, and a white teddy bear holding a sign, "Bears against bombs". In the centre is an image of Haw fixed to a wooden cross and wearing a T-shirt that says, "Bliar". Also displayed was a Banksy stencil of two soldiers painting a peace sign next to Leon Kuhn's anti-war political caricature 3 Guilty Men, both of which, together with Kuhn's The Proud Parents, Mark Wallinger later displayed in his recreation at the Tate in 2007. It was on show until 27 August 2007. Wallinger was shortlisted for the Turner Prize on 8 May 2007 for State Britain, and announced the winner on 3 December 2007. ==Exclusion zone==

The Tate press release on the exhibition mentioned that the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 prohibited "unauthorised demonstrations within a one kilometre radius of Parliament Square" and that this radius passed through the Duveen Hall, bisecting Wallinger's exhibit. However, Charles Thomson of the Stuckists pointed out the exclusion zone ended at Thorney Street, 300 yards before the Tate. The one kilometre radius is the maximum possible, but not actual, area of the designated zone, which is mapped out by particular streets. ==Critiques==

A few days before the opening of the exhibit, Brian Haw said he knew nothing about it, but that "What we had ... were pieces of art." Tim Teeman commented that Wallinger created the exhibit not only to bring what he perceives as a dangerous erosion of civil liberties to light, but also to examine whether the installation was art or politics; Teeman concluded that it was obviously both. ==Notes and references==