Night Hawk

A large gold Nighthawk stealth fighter attack aircraft is presented against a porous background of coloured, flowing ink on Japanese Kozo paper that appears as camouflaged topography.
The Nighthawk was the world's first operational stealth aircraft, used by the United States Air Force between 1982 and 2008 (use of the aircraft was only made public in 1988). The aircraft is shaped to deflect radar signals, and was developed for night flight in dense threat environments to attack high-value ground targets with high accuracy. Muttons choice of this aircraft and the use of gold paint is significant is commenting on the idolisation and glamorisation of modern war technology. As these aircraft are retired, they are now displayed in various museum contexts, romanticising them as objects. Mutton's work often responds to the circumstances of the death of her great-uncle, RAF serviceman George Mutton, and the use of silhouettes is significant. Mutton's great-uncle was an 'Observer', a role in which he was trained to recognise whether an aircraft was friendly or an enemy based purely on the silhouette. Sergeant Mutton died as a result of an aircraft accident on 12 February 1942 at Secret Aerodome No.2, Palembang, Indonesia, and his burial site has never been identified.