Marlboro’s Cigarette Boxes 

 

 

A series of screen print, reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans.  The first cigarette packet is titled “Competition for Natural Resources Kills More People than Cigarettes”, and it was exhibited at the Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts in 2018,  

 

My messages are about current political issues and of history. The human race seems hell bent on repeating the same mistakes of the past as the battle for natural resources, fueled by consumerism, war and the quest for power threatens the very existence of humanity.

  

I have a student from the Lebanon, he had a Marlboro cigarette box which had ‘Smoking kills’ written in Arabic as a warning message. I found the American Cigarette packet with the Arabic writing to be uncomfortable as it is simultaneously collaborative and contrasting.

 

This made me think about the amount of money and care invested in health warning for tobacco products, predominately to stop people from dying of cancer and to protect the western world from escalating medical costs. I then compared it to the higher number of smoking and non-smoking individuals that would die because of war. No warning messages are being created to support the vulnerable and disadvantage. Human beings are the biggest health risk to other humans, we should all carry a warning sign.

​

"Marlboro Cigarette Boxes is a declaration of disapproval of human conflict. I am creating inclusive warning signs in the attempt to sensitises and unite humanity." 

​