War Has Never Been So Much Fun!
The final body of work proposed for my degree show was collaborated by myself and Joe Hayward. Throughout this year, we have been interested in the concept of combining war and play. Play can be through the medium of humour to the extreme of childish immaturity, or it could be through the notion of games or gaming. Using the topic of war and processing it through play and humour, we have created our latest body of work which consists of paintings, photographs, sculpture and installation.
Primarily, the installation was the bullet point of our body of work. The 8ft wooden room housed the sculptures and some of the paintings included in the selection. It is a standalone 8x8x8ft room constructed from MDF boards and painted white to add a military-style ‘uniform’ to the piece. On the floor of the installation inside we place black body casts of people that had been constructed out of modrock. They had been sprayed black to give the illusion of charred bodies, and aftermath of war. But in reality, all you were essentially looking at were casts of naked female bodies.
Surrounding these casts we places heaps of sand, so the viewer could not see the wooden floor of the installation, thus giving the perception that the viewer had entered a desert-war scene, complete with burnt bodies as casualties. But the viewer would be foolish to feel such a way, after all it is only sand, many people tie a cognitive link to the sand as a childhood memory, playing amongst the sand with a bucket and spade.
On the inside of the installation walls were 4 hung paintings. ‘Project: Blue Fire’, a piece earlier finished by both of us, and 3 more recent paintings.
‘Crazy Enough For War’ is a painting created in more figurative way and is a staged portrait of myself mocking the stereotypical image of a modern soldier. Photographed by my collaborative partner, Joe, we both worked on this painting, taking stints on different sections of the painting and regularly going over and improving each others sections of the work.
‘New Recruit’ can be seen as a controversial painting for this subject, as it features a model child who has helped pose for this painting. It brings up the taboo of child soldiers and the way children have been brutalised as victims of war for centuries. It is more apparent in modern wars such as Iraq where toxic Depleted Uranium ammunition dropped by coalition forces have contaminated Iraq homelands, including the home grounds of such children. The pose shows the child dressed in adult soldier equipment which is way too big for him in reality, but addresses the subject of play, when many of us as children would dress up as army men. This would at the time perceive the army and war as ‘cool’ and ‘fun’. But no emotion of fun is shown on the face of the child in the painting.
The smaller painting which is hung on the smallest of the 4 inside walls is a portrait painting of U.S. President, George W. Bush. Slight alterations to the face have been made within this painting, such as the addition of a red clowns smile, streaked across the mouth of Bush. Some people may refer to the American leader as a ‘clown’ because of the acts committed whilst in power have been deemed by some as stupid. This is reflected by the clown reference apparent on the painting.
On the outside walls of the installation would be a comedic opposite of the harsh depiction of war presented inside the installation. On the outside would be the first image the viewer would see about our work and evidently our vision of war. We have chosen a particularly comedic image of myself and Joe dressed in full adult army equipment, sat on a small duck which is supposed to be used by children at a children’s park in Leeds. We wanted the viewer to feel slightly amused by this piece, only then to enter the installation and see for himself the lesser-humorous, uncomfortable side to war. It’s as almost the viewer was told ‘your experience may differ’ when entering the hut. This is because the advertisements and media coverage of the modern way is a ghastly glorification to what actually happens on the frontlines and in the aftermath. The photograph on the outside is almost there as bait to lure the viewer into a sense of disillusionment and a false sense of state, much like the media advertisement propaganda.
On the walls adjacent to the installation would be some of our older works, ‘Stars and Stripes’, and ‘Walk With Me In Hell’.
We felt these two pieces shared the same qualities of war and play and should be included indirectly to the installation. We found we had space on the opposing walls to the installation so we figured this was the perfect space for the two canvases.
Primarily, the installation was the bullet point of our body of work. The 8ft wooden room housed the sculptures and some of the paintings included in the selection. It is a standalone 8x8x8ft room constructed from MDF boards and painted white to add a military-style ‘uniform’ to the piece. On the floor of the installation inside we place black body casts of people that had been constructed out of modrock. They had been sprayed black to give the illusion of charred bodies, and aftermath of war. But in reality, all you were essentially looking at were casts of naked female bodies.
Surrounding these casts we places heaps of sand, so the viewer could not see the wooden floor of the installation, thus giving the perception that the viewer had entered a desert-war scene, complete with burnt bodies as casualties. But the viewer would be foolish to feel such a way, after all it is only sand, many people tie a cognitive link to the sand as a childhood memory, playing amongst the sand with a bucket and spade.
On the inside of the installation walls were 4 hung paintings. ‘Project: Blue Fire’, a piece earlier finished by both of us, and 3 more recent paintings.
‘Crazy Enough For War’ is a painting created in more figurative way and is a staged portrait of myself mocking the stereotypical image of a modern soldier. Photographed by my collaborative partner, Joe, we both worked on this painting, taking stints on different sections of the painting and regularly going over and improving each others sections of the work.
‘New Recruit’ can be seen as a controversial painting for this subject, as it features a model child who has helped pose for this painting. It brings up the taboo of child soldiers and the way children have been brutalised as victims of war for centuries. It is more apparent in modern wars such as Iraq where toxic Depleted Uranium ammunition dropped by coalition forces have contaminated Iraq homelands, including the home grounds of such children. The pose shows the child dressed in adult soldier equipment which is way too big for him in reality, but addresses the subject of play, when many of us as children would dress up as army men. This would at the time perceive the army and war as ‘cool’ and ‘fun’. But no emotion of fun is shown on the face of the child in the painting.
The smaller painting which is hung on the smallest of the 4 inside walls is a portrait painting of U.S. President, George W. Bush. Slight alterations to the face have been made within this painting, such as the addition of a red clowns smile, streaked across the mouth of Bush. Some people may refer to the American leader as a ‘clown’ because of the acts committed whilst in power have been deemed by some as stupid. This is reflected by the clown reference apparent on the painting.
On the outside walls of the installation would be a comedic opposite of the harsh depiction of war presented inside the installation. On the outside would be the first image the viewer would see about our work and evidently our vision of war. We have chosen a particularly comedic image of myself and Joe dressed in full adult army equipment, sat on a small duck which is supposed to be used by children at a children’s park in Leeds. We wanted the viewer to feel slightly amused by this piece, only then to enter the installation and see for himself the lesser-humorous, uncomfortable side to war. It’s as almost the viewer was told ‘your experience may differ’ when entering the hut. This is because the advertisements and media coverage of the modern way is a ghastly glorification to what actually happens on the frontlines and in the aftermath. The photograph on the outside is almost there as bait to lure the viewer into a sense of disillusionment and a false sense of state, much like the media advertisement propaganda.
On the walls adjacent to the installation would be some of our older works, ‘Stars and Stripes’, and ‘Walk With Me In Hell’.
We felt these two pieces shared the same qualities of war and play and should be included indirectly to the installation. We found we had space on the opposing walls to the installation so we figured this was the perfect space for the two canvases.
posted by Ryan Ware at 09:52
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