Mercy Killing

The artwork is an anti war protest piece, depicting a man who has a bullet wound in his forehead, a strangled woman and a small naked child who is being

admonished/instructed by a general. The pattern includes depictions of a pangolin which is a “living fossil” and acts as a visual metaphor for how things always stay the same no matter how things change.

The use of neon colours and pearlescent pigments are to contrast the dark visual themes and show the way that death and war is camouflaged to look appealing.

Peter Mammes 

Born in Johannesburg, Peter moved to the UK in 2018 on an exceptional talent visa and now resides and works in London. He attended the National School of the Arts in Braamfontein, where he received his only formal training in art. Interested predominantly in drawing and painting, as well as sculpture and printmaking. He had his first solo exhibition at the age of 16.

Peter travels extensively around the world to find ideas and imagery for his work, collecting patterns that he finds on stone carvings and reliefs on temples, facades and graves. His artwork is inspired by substantial research on topics and materials ranging from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, motifs from Indian temples and cremation pits, the first world war, Soviet and Russian neo-classical patterns and dead animals found in the Namibian desert.