SLIDE 21

“ We have diagrammed what our sources reported about these mobile facilities. Here you see both truck and rail-car mounted mobile factories. The description our sources gave us of the technical features required by such facilities is highly detailed and extremely accurate”

— Colin L Powell

On February 5, 2003, Colin L Powell presented a computer-generated image, slide 21, of alleged mobile production facilities for biological weapons at the United Nations, as evidence of threat. Later, it turned out that these production facilities did not exist. The poor visual quality of the images may have been intended to convey technical abstraction, but the simplicity of the images seems disproportionate to the alleged impact—the justification for the invasion of Iraq.
Although more realistic images could have been possible, it was not deemed necessary at the time. A simple drawing would not have been convincing enough, while the use of, for example, photos would have amounted to fabrication.
Selby Gildemacher became intrigued by how a fabricated image could have such big consequences. At the European Ceramic Work Center (EKWC) Gildemacher recreated the lie into ceramic objects.

Gildemacher never worked with ceramics before:

Gildemacher had gotten used to the safety of CRTL-Z, a feeling you can always undo the choices you make. 

The hardest part of working with ceramics is the fact that you cannot undo things.