Artists on airport expansion

A poster sets out the opposition to plans for airport expansion in Kent Credit: Kevin Clarkson

The exhibition is designed to set out what campaigners say will be the devastating impact a huge hub airport could have on Medway and wider Kent. A group of nine artists have put together the collection, called Beauty or the Beast, which shows the damage they believe a Thames Estuary airport would cause. Starting on March 31 at the Nucleus Art Gallery in Chatham., it will include work from artists Martin Booth, Karl Farrer, Jim Hill, Tina Lawlor Mottram, Stuart Ody, Peter Reeds, Teresa Tanner, Dave Wise and Kevin Clarkson.They are calling themselves the 'No Thames Airport Artists Group' who are concerned by the visual propaganda generated by Foster & Partners for a Thames Estuary airport.

Graphic artist Kevin Clarkson, has produced one image called The Thames Estuary Hub Airport: An Inconvenient Truth.

It illustrates how Medway and the surrounding area will alter if an airport gets the go ahead. His work imagines how the series of roads, railways, new towns and other building work needed for a massive £70billion four-runway airport might impact on the region.

A series of posters have been produced to fight airport expansion Credit: Kevin Clarkson

Mr Clarkson said: “The exhibition will give a snapshot of what the Thames and Medway estuaries mean to their communities and highlights the devastation an airport twice the size of Heathrow would have on health and the quality of life of people living there.“I have tried to show just how close towns in Kent and Essex would be to this airport if built because whenever I read about this in the London media no one seems to appreciate just how many people would be affected by an airport on this scale.