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Artists Responding to WarA small upstairs room in the Artist Image Resource was transformed into a salon packed with art works conveying anger, frustration, sadness and irony in reaction to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the practice of war in general. The War Room, organized by Allegheny College Professor Robert Raczka, included about 50 artists invited to express their thoughts and reactions to these current, and indeed very divisive issues. Many different aspects of war became subjects for the work, from memorial and farewell to American soldiers who were killed to graphic images of the destruction and death of Iraqi children. The exhibit did not display one particular reaction to the war, or select one style of reaction. Ranging from completely abstract, in Chuck Olson’s Night Mission: Premonition, a nearly solid black canvas with thick, textured paint coming through to graphic as in William Gravis’s painting that, using images of detergent bottles only visible from close, spelled out “Fights Terror with Terror” such that the entire image looked like a Tide Detergent advertisement. Because the works were all very close together, some images altered the meaning of another. On one wall was John Ritter’s Graphic transformation of the image of an Iraqi prisoner being tortured at Abu Ghraib, to the Statue of Liberty being tortured on the block. Just beside it was Maritza Mosquera’s work, We Are All Born Completely Good. Pictures of the Abu Ghraib abusers as children, along with their birthdates, were placed side by side with sketches of the images of the abuse and the text of the Human and Prisoner Rights as set forth by the Geneva Convention. The piece seemed to convey a sense of sadness that these young people, most in their early twenties, had been corrupted or indoctrinated enough to override the innate good and allow them to perform such heinous acts. Both expressed a deep sadness that our people and our sense of justice have become so distorted and side-by-side the two messages were doubly thought provoking. Though not intended to be a partisan exhibit, some of the sentiments were directly critical of the president. In Patrick Smith’s contribution, the text “Liar, Liar Pants on Fire” was written over images of George Bush’s face. A more subtle criticism of all media was Robert Brackman’s Flash Cards for the New Millennium. Boldfaced words were superimposed on television screens that provided ironic and thought provoking juxtapositions. “Truth,” “Surface” and “Thought” were all imposed on news reports, as was “Product,” which was beneath an image of John Kerry campaigning. A Hallmark advertisement with a monkey holding a card bore the word “Fear;” a home shopping network sale of a lamb leather Trench coat bore the word “Chaos.” Because the exhibit was planned and put together from start to finish in only 10 days, Raczka did not ask participants for artist statements. Almost every piece in the exhibit provoked a strong emotional reaction or a challenge to think, but any statement of what the art intended is based on conjecture. There seemed to be a consistent belief that this war is a tragedy, that the death of anyone due to this war is tragic. Within that, it is an unfortunate statement about this war that based on these works, there is anger, sadness and frustration but there seems to be little hope. It was a mixed blessing to attend the exhibit when no one else was there. The room was so densely packed with work, that being able to spend time on each work and then survey the room in peace and quiet allowed time to think and reflect on the differing images and messages. But I imagine with other viewers, lively discussions of the work and the issues would be possible. My own hope is that the project does not end with this exhibit, but continues to allow artists to continue to engage in these questions with a broader audience. - Mollie McClelland is a contributing writer. |