Blueys, is a large-scale installation of eighteen letters and two language phrase cards made of paper, along with three digital prints on archival paper and two magnifying glasses. The work also includes three free-standing display vitrines made of wood, medium density fibreboard (MDF) and acrylic, and an audio/video.

When the British armed forces are deployed on foreign operations, they are entitled to free aerogrammes, to and from their families and friends. Aerogrammes are colloquially known as blueys because of their colour. The artwork is a collection of eighteen handwritten and printed blueys on paper. These letters were exchanged in 2003 by a British soldier with his wife and children, during his posting in Iraq. The soldier used an American English to Arabic language phrase card issued by the British government. This card consisted of limited words that would assist him in communicating with the local Iraqis.

Blueys, traces the English and Arabic languages used by the soldier, through personal letters and a rigid language phrase card respectively. The work highlights the trajectory of such phrase cards as a tool, to communicate in foreign lands, by literally overlapping them onto the letters exchanged by the soldier and his family. On closer inspection of the displayed letters, one observes that certain words are revealed and some masked. This play of visible and hidden texts takes its lead from what is permitted and suggested in the language phrase card. An audio/video, which is also part of the work depicts an improvised version of the language card, where English words commonly used by the British family are listed alongside their Arabic translation and phonetics.

Blueys, was developed during Baptist Coelho’s 2015-16 Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence, supported by and at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. The residency was also supported by Leverhulme Trust, Cultural Programming at King’s College London and Delfina Foundation, UK. In 2016, the installation was first exhibited as part of the artist’s three-person solo exhibition, Traces of War at Somerset House, London. The exhibition was curated by Vivenne Jabri, Cécile Bourne-Farrell.