Solo tribute to our soldiers caught up in war and conflict

In 2008, Lister, who studied at the Hornsey College of Art, was the winner of Salon, an open exhibition hosted by Leeds-based East Street Arts at its Patrick studios in Burmantofts. Standing in the middle of his prize, a solo exhibition in the studios, Lister is happy to explain that the idea of conflict is one which resonates with him.

"I have found that the idea of conflict is something I have looked at constantly and often during my career," says Lister. "So when I was asked to bring together this exhibition, it seemed an opportunity to look at that.

"I already had several pieces which look at the notion of conflict and over the past few months I have created a number of pieces which look at the idea for this exhibition."

Lister's most famous piece in the exhibition is a collage of Falklands hero Simon Weston, which was exhibited at The Light shopping centre in Leeds in 2007 at the Leeds Art Fair and where it won the Best in Show prize.

For his new pieces, Lister returned again to the subject of war heroes and soldiers injured in the line of duty.

"A lot of my work uses images from newspapers and the media. Current affairs have always interested me and I was particularly interested in the conflicts that have come as a result of the 'war on terror'.

"I was reading a magazine last year, and I came across an article about soldiers who have lost limbs while fighting in Iraq." The article was accompanied by photographs of the soldiers seated in chairs. Lister says: "The photographs were in a style normally reserved for portraits of the rich and powerful. These soldiers had been sent into war and lost limbs and I was really interested in the fact that they were powerless, yet had been photographed in this style which was in the past only ever reserved for people with power. It was a fascinating contrast."

Taking the photographs as a starting point, Lister has produced three oil paintings on canvas of the soldiers. It makes for an eclectic show, with Simon Weston's collage, etchings made on reclaimed wood and traditional canvases.

The wooden etchings may sit slightly at odds with the traditional canvases, but Lister's notions of working with material are explored even further in another part of the exhibition, where images are printed on to elaborate fabric handkerchiefs or tablecloths. So an image of Saddam Hussein is printed on a silk handkerchief.

Lister first started working on these ideas when studying in Bradford for an MA in printmaking. "I was interested in the idea of images of people like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, images we are really familiar with, being printed on this unusual kind of material.

"I'm not sure how people will respond to it, but for me it's about re-examining an image that we are very familiar with and which we respond to in a very specific way, and looking at it again because it is in a context which is so unusual."

The exhibition runs until April 15 and Andrew Lister will be giving a talk on April 14, 5.30pm to 7pm. Patrick Studios, St Mary's Lane, Leeds LS9 7EH. 0113 248 0040.