Exhibition: War & Peace – The Work of War Artist and Landscape Painter, Kevin Weaver

Kevin Weaver is an ex-war correspondent who covered many conflicts during the 1990s, beginning with the series of revolutions across eastern Europe including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Romanian revolution, the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia and the Croatian and Bosnian wars in the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.

Exhibition: War & Peace – The Work of War Artist and Landscape Painter, Kevin Weaver

Kevin Weaver is an ex-war correspondent who covered many conflicts during the 1990s, beginning with the series of revolutions across eastern Europe including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Romanian revolution, the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia and the Croatian and Bosnian wars in the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.

He also covered the genocide in Rwanda and Hutu exodus to Zaire, and the NATO conflict with Serbia over Kosovo. He worked as a photographer and journalist freelancing for The Independent, The
Guardian, The New Statesmen, and BBC radio among many others. He is now an artist living and working in Ennerdale on the west coast of Cumbria after being diagnosed with PTSD – due in part to his being shot in Sarajevo in 1992 while covering the war in Bosnia. He uses his nightmares and photographs as starting points for his large oil, wax and silicon paintings and light installations of objects such as backlit Yugoslav money scorpions and crabs embedded in epoxy resin. Kevin also paints impressionistic landscapes of the Lake District and other spots around the UK including Dumfries & Galloway, Norfolk and Cornwall. During ‘War & Peace’, there will be a ‘Wall of Peace’ of these landscapes, as a contrast to the war imagery.

The display will also feature a wall of black & white photographs from the conflicts Kevin has covered and personal items including a bullet he was shot with, his flak jacket and press passes. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Surrey Heath Museum’s first and last exhibitions of the year are inspired by military conflict, past and present. Towards the end of the year we will be staging ‘The Battles of First World War’ – an exhibition looking at the local death toll annually during the First World War, and the lessons learnt from each battle as the war came to its end.

EVENTS

– ‘War & Peace’ Talk
Kevin Weaver will be staging a talk on his work on Thursday 15 March at High Cross Church,
Camberley, 7pm to 9pm (tickets £3.50 – please book in advance).
Spring Half Term: Sat 10 to Sat 17 Feb – 11am to 5pm, free drop in

– ‘Military Mindset’ – Children’s Workshops (6 to 12 years)
Ex-military Officer Mick Bacon passes on his military know-how during half term in these child friendly
sessions. Become a member of army personnel and train in military coding, communication,
deciphering clues and observation techniques in special stations around the museum. Military Mindset
training certificates for all who take part!