Fiona Banner

A recurrent theme in Fiona Banner’s works, is the symbolic power of military hardware. In Pranayama Organ, recently on view in Venice during the 2022 Biennale, we see two immense inflatable military decoy fighter jets, a Typhoon and a Falcon, gradually come to life and enact a dream of emasculating the tools of conflict. The setting is a coastal area on the English Channel between a submerged petrified forest under the seabed, and an eroding cliff face. Later, the two figures, including the artist, are dressed as Typhoon and Falcon and carry out an absurd ritual dance of courtship and combat. They cautiously explore each other, desiring intimacy not conflict. In the soundtrack the rhythm of breathing blends with an organ referencing Wild is the Wind, and a tenuous balance arises between power and vulnerability, and between humor and poetry and violence.