Roddy Buchanan, the Glasgow-based artist, has been appointed by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) as the official war artist for the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

He has been commissioned to make a visual artwork for the museum’s collection reflecting on the legacy of the conflict. The centrepiece will be a film looking at the Troubles through the eyes of members of two flute bands, one republican and one loyalist, based in Glasgow.

However, the appointment has been criticised by unionists who claim it could give the impression of seeking to elevate the conflict to the status of a war. They also said it was insensitive given the recent killings of two soldiers and a policeman in Northern Ireland.

Museum officials appointed Buchanan, 43, after being impressed by his 2007 exhibition on sectarianism in the west of Scotland. Histrionics, which was shown at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, included two films on the bands; the Parkhead Republican Flute Band and the Black Skull Corps of Fife and Drum.

He is due to complete the visual artwork, which will feature the bands during the marching season in Northern Ireland, later this year and it will be displayed at the IWM in London.

“The war museum had been looking to develop something in relation to the engagement of the British Army in Northern Ireland,” said Buchanan. “It was something that they felt they hadn’t covered thoroughly enough considering the magnitude of the engagement.

“The guys in the bands are the guys who were much on the streets from the hunger strikes to the present day. They were there all through the Northern Ireland experience. It’s a legacy artwork and one of the legacies of the Troubles is this growing band culture with the reduction of recruitment within paramilitary institutions which has not really been given much of a platform.”

However, William Frazer, of the campaign group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, said: “I think it’s insulting that the war museum should be doing this. They are giving a status to what happened which it doesn’t deserve.

“People have been retraumatised by the recent killings and this is not what we need when people are telling us that we have to move on all the time.

“The Imperial War Museum should stick to what it was set up to do, which is remember soldiers who have died in wars. What happened in Northern Ireland was not a war and this film sounds as if it has nothing to do with a war museum. This is giving a voice to certain sections of the community who don’t deserve to be heard.”

A spokesman for the Democratic Unionist Party said: “The DUP recognises and appreciates the value of the work of the Imperial War Museum. Northern Ireland has been well served and protected by our armed forces down through the years. We would, however, express concern at any event that would describe the conflict in Northern Ireland as a war. Provisional IRA and other paramilitaries were not soldiers, they were criminals.”

Buchanan said he was not concerned about a negative reaction to the work and said Northern Ireland’s recent history was something that should be openly discussed.

“Both these communities are quite open at the moment to discussion and it’s part of the artist’s job to make use of that chink where people are not feeling too paranoid and having to physically defend themselves.

“These things have to be addressed and I don’t think recent events are a problem for the artwork. There is massive nervousness around this area, it’s the elephant in the room and the Achilles heel of a lot of London life. People have shunned that part of the UK for long enough.”

Buchanan follows in the footsteps of fellow Scot Peter Howson, who was the official war artist during the Bosnian conflict in 1993. More recently, Steve McQueen was appointed by the museum as its war artist in Iraq.

Roger Tolson, the IWM’s head of art, acknowledged there was an issue with the word “war” but said the museum was “about the impact of war and conflict on society and how it affects people’s lives.”

He said the commission had been devised before the recent murders and said it would be handled “sensitively” by the museum.

“The Art Commissions Committee has commissioned Roddy Buchanan to produce a response on the subject of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, with a particular focus on the changing landscape following the Good Friday agreement,” said a spokeswoman for the IWM.

“Roddy has been working with Glasgow pipe bands from both sides of the divide, developing a work based around their studio rehearsals.

“His proposal is to now follow the bands on to the streets of Northern Ireland during the marching seasons and to record their progress around sites steeped in the history of the conflict.”

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