LONDON.- We see war in all kinds of spaces and locations, some predictable and others less so. The elements of war are present in our everyday lives, in our daily routines; from violence, antagonisms, discourses of exclusion, displacements and populations on the move. There is a resonance in Michel Foucault’s observation that the ‘roar of battle’ travels silently in our modes of being and interactions, discourses and institutions, and the practices we take for granted.
Artists throughout history have sought to capture the agony of war, its impact on combatants and civilians, on landscapes, and on the most hidden spaces: our memories, identities, and lived experiences. At the same time, the phenomenon of war is not confined to moments of crisis or battlefield locations. War should not be something defined by its representation on screens or in print where narratives of patriotism distort, but rather should be seen as a force which disrupts the normality of everyday life, ever present both viscerally and emotionally.
Traces of War, curated by Cécile Bourne-Farrell and Vivienne Jabri, Professor of International Relations, King’s College London, reimagines war beyond its exceptionality, locating it in spaces where it would be least expected. At the same time, the artworks and artists reveal the sheer power of the everyday, as life in its own right and at its most ordinary makes its presence felt in the most dangerous war zones. In Traces of War, three internationally renowned artists, Jananne Al-Ani, Baptist Coelho and Shaun Gladwell, expose the more quotidian side of warfare. Working primarily with photography, film and multimedia installations, all three artists have direct experience of conflict and war zones. As such, from their respective experiences in Iraq, India, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, all three are sensitive to traces of war and their residual effects in the domestic sphere.
Born in Kirkuk, Iraq, London based artist, Jananne Al-Ani, reveals traces of conflict and occupation in seemingly unexpected places. In her film Shadow Sites II (2011), aerial views of contested landscapes suggest war’s imprint upon a surface that is itself only comprehensible when seen from above. The use of aerial imagery to find new archaeological sites emerged from intelligence gathering in times of war, and for Al-Ani, it is the intersection of the two that offers the potential to reveal the ghosts of past conflicts in the present. For Traces of War Al-Ani is producing a new film, Black Powder Peninsula, which will take the form of an aerial journey across the British landscape. By replicating the point of view of a drone in her film, Al-Ani offers a new perspective on the English landscape, flattening and abstracting it, rendering it unfamiliar and ‘other’, more desert-like perhaps. Black Powder Peninsula forms the final element of the Shadow Sites story, which explores the complex geopolitical relations that link Britain’s past to that of the United States and the Middle East.
The silent roar of battle is differently seen in Mumbai based artist, Baptist Coelho’s multi-media installations. Coelho realises the everydayness of war by making use of what he has referred to as the ‘fabric’ of war; literally the materials of a life lived in battle zones where no battle as such takes place; where there is much waiting in the lives of soldiers mobilised in India’s farthest mountain reaches. Here we see objects such as jars of food, bandages, soldiers’ uniforms, and backpacks sent to unlikely spaces so that the audience is never quite sure of the measure of distance between home and the war front. Baptist Coelho is the current Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Coelho’s contribution to the exhibition reveals life in zones of war and in the most extreme conditions, respectively the Iraq war and its implications for familial and everyday communications and the Siachen glacier in India which is brought to audiences through everyday objects.
Australian-born artist Shaun Gladwell, who served as Australia’s official war artist in the first Gulf War and later in Afghanistan, uses his photography to critically analyse the use of cameras and filmography in warfare. Double Field/Viewfinder (Tarin Kowt) was produced during the artist's tenure in Afghanistan and is the first work to use the medium of video in the history of the scheme, the moving image lending itself to explorations in the role of technology, communications and surveillance, in contemporary warfare. A synchronised dual-channel video, televised on two screens facing one another, presents two soldiers stood in the Afghan desert. These two figures, rendered in slow-motion, are caught in a standoff as they simultaneously circle, imitate and shoot one another with their hand-held cameras. Where for Coelho, materials straddle both the military and the domestic sphere, in Gladwell’s photography and video, it is the camera which in retaining situational elements of the body destabilizes the time and space of war.
The three artists invite exploration into the academic research facilitated by The Department of War Studies. In addition to the exhibition, The Department of War Studies at King’s will work with young people, war veterans, students and the public through a collaborative series of dance workshops culminating in public performance. There will also be an exhibition catalogue with selected essays and commentary.
