(CNN)A portrait of John F. Kennedy made up of contorted comic book heroes, a handgun carved into a school desk, Abraham Lincoln on a Pez dispenser. These are the creations of Ben Turnbull, a kind of modern day Pop artist who has always looked to the extremes of American culture for his inspiration, drawing on what writer Don DeLillo might call the "magic and dread" of that society.
For a boy from suburban South West London, it would inevitably be pop culture that led him to these violent, politicized visions of the world across the pond.
"I was obsessed with 'Time Tunnel,' 'Night Gallery,' all these weird American shows. TV's changed a lot now, but there was a time when they always seemed to be on. It really formed my idea of a different world," he tells me. "I think that kind of culture is art, really. I think it's better art than a lot of art that's out there today."
With his new exhibition at London's Saatchi Gallery, Turnbull looks once more toward America, and American violence, this time focusing on that great US export, war.
"No Guts No Glory," looks at the journeys of three Marines in Vietnam: what brought them there, what they did there, how they were killed or what happened when they came home.
The show is full of recognizable iconography -- the dog tags, the slogan-covered military jackets straight out of "Full Metal Jacket" -- but for Turnbull, this isn't just about Vietnam, but all wars.
"This project is an across-the-board look at war and men, and why men do what they do or don't do; and what they do when they come back, and what happens to them."
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