Kit Klarenberg: Detained by the UK
Kit Klarenberg: Detained by the UK
Kit Klarenberg:
Detained by the UK

Kit Klarenberg, investigative journalist and head of Grayzone UK, was detained by the UK government on 2023 May 17 by six plainclothes police officers without charge of a crime. The UK government seized his electronic devices and SD cards, fingerprinted him, took DNA swabs, and photographed him intensively. They threatened to arrest him if he did not comply, and interrogated him for five hours. The above text is quoted directly from his detention notice.

Klarenberg has reported extensively on the crimes of British imperialism, and in particular, its concerted and systematic efforts to silence all political opposition and investigative reporting of its crimes both domestic and abroad, including mapping environmental and other activists’ social networks, and in particular using pointed sex scandals to discredit them. In the year prior to his detention, Klarenberg reported on Britain’s plot to bomb the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian Federation, and its recruitment of social media “influencers” to drum up popular support for NATO and anti-Russian sentiment.

2023 June 6 --- digital piece for social media
Gestalt: Sei

COMMENTARY


Notice of Detention under Schedule 3 to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. Detainee’s copy, given to KIT KLARENBERG.

A sort of successor to my HANDS OFF! Rebekah Jones piece three years beforehand, this piece on the detention of journalist Kit Klarenberg was also created for shareability on the large social media platforms: Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook. The incarceration of Julian Assange had set a precedent, with other anti-war and anti-austerity opponents further locked up by the British government under the excuse of terrorism. In Klarenberg’s case, there wasn’t even a charge of a crime—therefore legally allowing the most invasive seizure of his devices and a forced interrogation. I thought this was tremendous and horrifying. I felt compelled to make something.

This was also my first attempt at making a glitch artwork. There was a real concern that adding any sort of “aesthetic” overlay would distract away from the core subject matter of Klarenberg’s detention, and the anti-democratic laws put in place to enable the lock-up of him and other journalists and activists, including Julian Assange. The idea of adding a glitch effect to this piece came about because I was looking at animations from the indie horror game Decarnation  the same day; and the feeling of claustrophobia, of things that should not be happening, were similar and appropriate in this circumstance.

The image of Klarenberg is not really a photo of him in detention, but a still from an interview by the Unauthorized Disclosure podcast on 2022 July 3. I then overlaid prison bars photographed by Umanoide, and the Union Jack photographed Aleks Marinkovic, both free assets from Unsplash. The white bar showing Klarenberg’s eyes in stark contrast was inspired by the cinematography of The Cranes Are Flying. It’s an old cinematic trick: there is a scene where a highlight is shone on the character’s eyes, to bring focus to his emotional state. This was a common technique in black-and-white films, especially film noir, and I wanted to bring it into my works. It’s a fitting contrast to the HANDS OFF! Rebekah Jones piece wherein her eyes are censored out, by black rectangles.

GALLERY