A Conservative former defence minister whose brother was killed in a terrorist attack has slammed a 'tasteless and insensitive' art exhibit with colourfully painted suicide bomb vests.
The series of mounted bronze cast vests, which are on display in a gallery in Bournemouth, Dorset, are based on YouTube videos and internet images of suicide bombers.
Titled 'Monuments to Immortality', they have been described by curators as a 'dialogue between death and beauty'.
But Tobias Ellwood, Tory chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, has called for the artwork to be 'removed immediately'.
His 39-year-old brother Jonathan Ellwood was among the 202 people killed in an Islamist terror attack in a nightclub in Bali in 2002.
Jonathan was a history teacher who lived in Vietnam and had been visiting Bali for a conference.
Mr Ellwood was widely praised as a hero when he tried in vain to save PC Keith Palmer's life during the 2017 Westminster terrorist attack, which killed six people and injured over 50.
It also follows the killing of MP Sir David Amess by a suspected terrorist at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea as he met with Southend West constituents earlier this month.
The series of mounted bronze cast vests, which are on display in a gallery in Bournemouth, Dorset, are based on YouTube videos and internet images of suicide bombers
Tobias Ellwood, Tory chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, has called for the artwork to be 'removed immediately'
A display board with the suicide vests reveals the artwork, produced by British brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, was 'informed by YouTube videos of suicide bombers and internet imagery'
Mr Ellwood, the MP for Bournemouth East, said: 'My brother was killed by a terrorist wearing one of these jackets. I strongly urge this insensitive exhibition to be removed immediately.
'It is tasteless, offensive and irresponsible and I hope the exhibitors will act swiftly in taking it down. As the (recent) loss of a colleague in Parliament (Sir David Amess) illustrates, the threat of extremism is very real with individuals radicalised by what they read and see.'
The GIANT gallery, situated above a busy town centre department store in the seaside resort of Bournemouth, is open to shoppers and free to enter.
A display board with the suicide vests reveals the artwork, produced by British brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, was 'informed by YouTube videos of suicide bombers and internet imagery'.
It reads: 'This series of bronze-cast suicide vests is informed by YouTube clips of suicide bombers and internet imagery.
'A dialogue with death and beauty ensues, in which the risk and danger of being an artist is pitched against the power of the artist's conviction to fight for belief.'
The Chapman brothers are visual artists known for their shocking works and their previous artwork, including a crazy golf ornament of Hitler saluting, has attracted controversy.
In 2008 they painted hippie motifs on 13 water colours originally produced by the Fuhrer.
Mr Ellwood previously called for a temporary suspension of public meetings between MPs and their constituents following the killing of Sir David by a suspected terrorist.
Speaking to Channel 4, he warned: 'Ultimately we have to recognise that there could be a copycat-style attack. The police have already made that clear.
'So yes, absolutely, let's stand up to the terrorists, let's make sure that our lifestyles and the way we go about is not altered, that they do not win. But we need to do that in a cognitive way to make sure that MPs, staff and indeed the
