Iraqi Stories and Other Tales
Even though aggression has become a major characteristic of recent preemptive
corporate, terrorist, and national conflicts, its assumptions and effectiveness
are being hotly debated in red and blue states as well as across the globe
where winning the peace by waging war is viewed as a rallying cry and a
contested issue. Weighing in on this topic are a few prescient artists whose
works are political without being partisan in their emphasis on the very human
face of these hostilities. The Art of
Aggression features new perspectives on globalization and warfare by Wayne
Gonzales, Emily Jacir, An-My Lê, Mark Lombardi, Dominic McGill, Mary Ellen
Mark, Steve Mumford, Josh On & Futurefarmers, Martha Rosler, and Moises
Saman.
At the same time that the artists in this exhibition have examined pertinent
and related aspects of the United States’ recent participation in two Iraqi
wars, they have also questioned the role art can play in supporting or
undermining any aggressive offensive.
Among their queries is the overriding one of whether or not the work of
art is motivated by facts or fables, the truth or a postmodern staging of it
according to prevailing codes of understanding. The word “art” in this
exhibition’s title refers to (1) the skill in administering specific
techniques, including waging political and military attacks and (2) the
aesthetics involved in such pursuits.
Jean
Crutchfield
Robert
Hobbs