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Curatorial Statement

War has existed in every part of recorded history; violence has always been a part of life and continues to be. Though war and violence are constants, societies and cultures are not. At various points in time, violence has been considered a normal, common part of life. Have our psychological responses to war and violence remained the same or different throughout time? Have the ways in which we cope with war and violence changed? What is the difference between the connotations of violence now versus those of violence hundreds and thousands of years ago? Answering these questions is necessary in order to truly understand the contemporary ways in which we respond to war and violence.

In talking about art, Dmitry Fadeyev brings up an important point about desensitization to things in general. He says:

One effect of modern media consumption devices is our desensitization to various forms of art, chiefly music and visual arts, for imagine for a moment how much access a typical person would have had to such things over a couple hundred years ago, before the birth of modern sound recording, probable music players and efficient printers. Without those technologies, access to art, whether in the form of music or painting, was very much limited…The effect of such free access is that the impact of art is greatly diluted – it is no longer a rare and powerful emotional experience but an everyday occurrence.

This same notion can be applied to large-scale conflict. Though violence was once more common, it was not necessarily taken for granted. Each violent encounter was a “powerful emotional experience,” as were the stories of these encounters. Though violence wasn’t necessarily uncommon, the mediums through which stories of the violence were told made it so that no one was desensitized to combat atrocities. Stories traveled through word of mouth and through writing. Even Gladiator matches, though a form of entertainment, had a profound effect on spectators.

Today, violence is treated as a form of entertainment by the media. Movies, television, and video games glorify violence as something of a sport or as a way to prove machismo. Even the army has radio advertisements with whistling men marching in brotherly solidarity. Being aggressive is depicted as a good thing; carrying a weapon is shown as desirable and even sexy rather than as a serious but sometimes necessary reality. “Badassery” is a desired trait in western culture, and the media is to blame.

This online exhibit brings together digital art created to explore desensitization to violence in the contemporary era. From interactive pieces that ironically make one realize their distance from violence, to pieces that emphasize a lack of contact with violence in order to encourage reaching out to victims, this exhibit raises questions about desensitization and criticizes current modes of communication about violence. Alfredo Jaar, UNSW Sydney, Olia Lialina, Wafaa Bilal, and Joseph DeLappe have all created works examining war and society’s responses to it. All of the artists’ works demand face-to-face or otherwise intimate contact with those directly affected by violence; only by hearing the stories of and interaction with those affected by violence will anyone truly understand it. Violence should not be depicted in unrealistic ways that romanticize it. The media glorifying and romanticizing violence is why people are so desensitized to its present occurrences. Jaar creates intimacy between the audience and his piece by focusing on a single victim in his piece, The Silence of Nduwayezu. The University of New South Wales’s 360-degree virtual reality immersion installation, Retrospect: War, Family, Afghanistan, puts the viewer into the bona fide environment of soldiers. Lialina’s interactive, viewer-driven piece, My Boyfriend Came Back From The War, gives the viewer a more realistic view of war’s effects on everyday life for a soldier and his family. The piece’s narrative is a commentary on the way movies portray war. Bilal’s paintball project allows players to shoot at him with paintballs through the Internet, bringing attention to the effect of first-person shooter video games on society. DeLappe’s two pieces, Dead in Iraq and Gulf War Memories, critique narratives about and normalization of violence by the media. The former piece critiques the army’s own first-person shooter training video game, and the latter critiques the fact that many Americans sit down to watch news about war abroad as though it were a casual form of entertainment. All pieces by these artists critique the casual way violence is treated by the media, and demand that viewers hear from war victims themselves.

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Alfredo Jaar

“We should not be afraid sometimes to confront beauty and horror.”

“Our society is blind. We have lost our ability to be affected by imagery.”

Alfredo Jaar is a contemporary artist who explores genocide and violence through art and critiques and investigates the ability of art to represent human rights atrocities. Subjects addressed in his work include the holocaust in Rwanda, gold mining in Brazil, toxic pollution in Nigeria, and issues related to the border between Mexico and the United States. He got his start in cinema, and has since become an artist who creates installations, photographs, films, and community-based projects.

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The Silence of Nduwayezu memorializes an individual of the Rwandan genocide. The aim of the piece is to put a stop to collective detachment from the suffering of others by creating intimacy to a single person rather than a million.

WATCH: Background of the Rwandan Genocide

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Retrospect: War, Family, Afghanistan

Info page Brief info page Full info page

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Retrospect: War, Family, Afghanistan was a collaborative project created by UNSW and ABC Radio utilizing ABC radio documentaries, ABC television footage, a dedicated website, and an immersive digital archive hosted by the iCinema Research Centre, which is a partnership between faculties across UNSW including Art & Design and Engineering. Featuring previously unseen footage shot on location for ABC TV, and interviews conducted by internationally renowned photojournalist, Stephen Dupont, the project is enhanced by personal photos and videos provided by the veterans. The result is a nuanced portrayal of how war is experienced in the era of digital communication.”

This piece was a  360-degree 3D installation allowing viewers to take a virtual tour through the lives of military families. 

WATCH

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Olia Lialina

Lialina is an artist with a background in cinema.

Lialina on Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology

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Olia Lialina’s My Boyfriend Came Back from the War doesn’t so much critique the portrayal of suffering from war in the media as much as it merely questions it. It focuses on the organization of memory specifically.

Lialina came to net art from an interest in cinema, and this piece reflects this interest. The piece “... highlights the parallels and divergences between cinema and the web as artistic and mass mediums, and explores the then-emerging language of the net.” It raises questions about how army wives and their husbands are depicted cinematically by creating a “cinematic narrative” through a new medium.

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Wafaa Bilal

Wafaa Bilal’s keystone project was his paintball project, Domestic Tension.

Domestic Tension infopage on Bilal’s website

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Wafaa Bilal’s paintball project was a critique of first-person shooter video games. In this video games, violence becomes a source of entertainment; killing becomes a sport.

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Joseph DeLappe

Joseph DeLappe is a contemporary artist who focuses on modern attitudes about war and violence.

DeLappe’s website The 1,000 Drones Project

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Dead In Iraq was done as a protest and as a memorial.

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Gulf War Memories was DeLappe’s effort to criticize the fact that we often treat news about military conflict as a form of entertainment rather than as serious content.