"Experiencing the War in Iraq"

A group of local artists has come together to organize a multi-media art exhibition opening in Rhode Island called “Experiencing the War in Iraq.” The aim of the exhibition is to give a human face to the complex conflict in Iraq, to bring together diverse expressions of individual experience and to reconnect those who have unconsciously cocooned themselves from the grim reality of the war. Through the language of art, the exhibition seeks to transcend the limitations of mainstream media coverage and engage the public in a broad-based dialogue that promotes awareness, understanding, and healing. The exhibition will include work from both soldiers and civilians that utilizes video, audio, photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and the written word. 600 entries were received from around the planet, including the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and South America, as well as close to home. Of the artists selected to appear, here are just a few names to mention:
Wafaa Bilal, the Iraqi installation artist who was detained under Saddam Hussein’s rule and who teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago, Dahr Jamail, the author of Beyond the Green Zone, Benton-C Bainbridge, the video artist known for real-time performances at Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, and Kenny Carnes, the veteran who performs a solo oral history in dramatic verse.
The exhibition asks what does it mean to experience this war firsthand, in combat, or as an Iraqi civilian? What does it mean to experience it from a distance, or on television? How can we in America connect to the reality of war? Are there shared visions of peace despite cultural and religious differences? The work was selected purely on artistic merit, to include as many perspectives as possible, beyond politics.

The show will open on March 6th, 2008 simultaneously in the Arts Exchange (Pawtucket Armory) and Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket. There will be related screenings and performances at the Slater Mill Theatre, and Mixed Magic Theatre, as well as AS220 and the Cable Car Cinema in Providence, RI. A vigil with candlelight procession, music, theatre, and spoken word performances is scheduled for March 19th to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the War. The hope is to reach thousands of people locally, perhaps tens of thousands by media exposure and the project website, which will become an active archive. After the exhibition closes in Rhode Island, it is set to open in Fall River from April 5th to May 3rd.
Please join us for the opening reception March 7th.

I am happy to announce that my piece (Re:) Media Untitled_006 (below) has been accepted into this show. I hope that if anyone is in the area they can stop in and check out this incredibly interesting and timely exhibition.

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Recontextualization of an Icon

In Xiang Jing's piece "Bang!" (shown above), she appropriates the gestures of the subjects of the iconic photograph by Eddie Adams, the "Vietcong Execution." It almost seems that to tell the reader of this reference is unnecessary, but just in case there are any art blog readers out there that are unfamiliar with the Eddie Adams image, here is your direction as to how to view this piece.

On the morning of February 2nd, 1968, during the Tet Offensive, Eddie Adams, working for the Associated Press, captured his famous photograph of the "Vietcong Execution." The image depicts Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam's national police chief, executing a prisioner who was said to be a Vietcong captain. General Loan stands with his back to the camera, his hand extended so that his gun is in point blank range of the Vietcaong captain's head. The Vietcong captain is wincing in pain as the bullet passes through his head. The image is not only shocking because of its content, but also because of the apparent staging of the event specifically for the camera. This image was one of few images that were blamed for turning the tide of public opinion and consequently for the loss of the Vietnam War.

The reality of the image is that General Loan executed a man who had just hours earlier, murdered one of his deputies families. After the execution, Loan clarified his intent to reporters. That part of the story never integrated itself into what that image came to stand for. This photograph shocked people and the reality of the situation was ignored, leaving the photograph to pick up any ideas of war that adhered to it. It became about ideas and not about an event. The evils it ended up standing for had nothing to do with the actual event in the street that day during the Tet Offensive.

Interestingly, iconic images throughout history have been recontextualized not only though the passage of time, but also across time. As a culture we formulate meanings for images that suit the way that we want them to read or need them to read. Susan Sontag, in her book "On Photography" (NY: Picador, 1977, p17) states that, "A photograph that brings news of some unsuspected zone of misery cannot make a dent in public opinion unless there is an appropriate context of feeling and attitude."

What meaning then does Xiang Jing's "Bang!" wish to glean from calling to mind the "Vietcong Execution?" The figures are women rather than men, they are dressed in everyday clothes rather than military garb, but they strike that pose, that pose that is so immensely referencial of a violent past, as the figure points her hand like a gun at the other's head and cynically smiles.