Monumental Guns and their Targets

All the cannons and artillery included in this survey are actual, historic weapons, located in Greater London and freely accessible to the public. The hypothetical strike point for each weapon has been calculated using available ballistics information for standard shells or cannon balls and takes into account the location, orientation, altitude and angle of inclination for each gun at the time of observation. The imagined strike points are roughly centred in the accompanying photograph that pairs with that of each gun. Inaccessible guns, sited within museums, other buildings or on private land have not been included. Nor, have guns that have been repurposed, for example, guns used as bollards where the muzzle or breech are buried. The exact identity of some of the guns is not recorded and where information was lacking, they were measured and compared to known designs. Guns pointing at objects a short distance away required less research. The simultaneous firing of all these guns is readable as a performance proposal, but one that is extremely unlikely to happen. All photographs were taken in the public realm. Any members of the public or private property that appear in the photographs are incidental. Includes an interview with the artist by Jon Woods.