In the art world, there’s a remarkable outpouring of support for U.S. soldiers fighting on two fronts. Their government under Bush & Cheney lied its way into Iraq. Afghanistan was an afterthought. However justified a military response might have been for the latter, the result is a mess. Increasingly, the idea that there are better ways to win hearts and minds is gaining ground.
In the late 1960s, soldiers coming home from Vietnam rarely found anything but contempt from artists addressing the war. (He’s the universal solider and he really is to blame.) Forty years later, anti-war sentiment among artists is as strong as it was then, but denunciations of soldiers are rare.
Below, a sample of what’s out there, from the U.S. and beyond.
An-my Le, from 29 Palms, 2003-present. (Image via)
Eli Wright, from the Combat Paper Project, 2009
Jon Michael Turner, from the Combat Paper Project, 2008
Emily Prince, from her series, American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Included by Robert Storr in his 2007 Venice Biennial.
Prince:
The numbers
kept coming up in the daily reports. Five here, fourteen there,
one day after another. And then the growing figure mounting
over a thousand. Peripherally it was ever-present, but still
only an abstraction. It was no longer enough to know how many.
I needed to see pictures of them, to familiarize myself just
a tiny bit more with what was happening far from my warm home.
And it really isn’t much. It too is a mere summary, just
one more step beyond bare numbers.
Yet for me it is something. It means spending time with each
one. It is looking into their eyes to see who is now gone. It
is following the line of their brow and trying to perceive the
expression there. It is a visual and visceral exploration of
these individuals by way of their faces. It is my own eyes and
my hand tracing out some very slight acquaintance with what’s
occurring.
Krzysztof Wodiczko, The Veterans’ Project, 2009, ICA Boston
Wodiczko to Boston Globe art critic Sebastian Smee:
“The work I have made so far about veterans has been kind of ‘out
there.’ I want this one to be more about ‘in here,’ ” he says, tapping
his head.(more)
Eros Hoagland, from Soldiers Fighting Our War In Iraq, ongoing. Eros is the son of famed war photographer John Hoagland, who died in El Salvador in 1984. He was 36.The bullet that killed him was U.S. Army issued.
Nicolas Grider:
:
John Hartley, Legs, oil/canvas, from Glasstire review
Clayton Cotterell, Graduation Day (Brother)
Clayton Cotterell, Boots
Mildred Howard, In the Line of Fire, installation, via MetroActive review
Sherry Markovitz, Boots On the Ground
Barry Goldstein, from Grey Land, via
Martha Rosler, from Bringing the War Home, House Beautiful, 2004 via
Hugh Syme, cover art, via
From Israel, Rachel Papo, 2004
Jeff Wall, via
Sanchez Brothers, via
Tom Stoddart, via
Bryon King, from Trophy Soldiers
Platon, from The New Yorker, 2008
Thank you for this. I especially love the last one, and the soldier as a deer.
Thanks so much for posting my image and for creating this post!
I think this set of pictures and the plethora of other artists working with this subject matter is slowly, but surely broadening the body (both the literal physical body and the stereotypical image of a soldier) which veterans can inhabit. This expansion is incredibly necessary. Often times, the terms in which these young men and women are expected to operate within are way too narrow and cause incredibly long lasting psychological problems. So, needless to say, thanks for creating a space for conversation.