Crossing the Wire: Western Contemporary War Art in the Interbellum

Abstract

This article for the popular print and online arts magazine, Di'Van reflects on the current state of Western contemporary war art, nearing the conclusion of the Art in Conflict ARC Linkage led by the author, Kit Messham-Muir. It particularly reflects upon two decades of western war art surrounding the conflicts in the American-led 'War on Terror', which effectively came to its conclusion with America's abandonment of Afghanistan on 30 August 2021. Western contemporary war art has a long tradition of making creative works that comment on conflicts, largely conveying the perspectives of the western troops. Indeed, this is the primary remit of most official war artist schemes in nations such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. This article considers the conspicuous absence of local voices, from within those war zones, in the sub-genre of contemporary war art. This article responds to criticisms by Muhub Esmat in an earlier issue of Di'Van, that western war art aims to only evoke a “facile compassion”. It takes up Esmat's analysis of the Afghan artist Aziz Hazara, who works between Kabul and Ghent, particularly discussing his five-channel video installation Bow Echo (2019), which was shown at John Curtin Gallery, Perth, shortly following the publication of this article. This article argues that sometimes western war artists do succeeding in 'crossing the wire' of the protected western bubble of military, which tends to skew our perspectives of how we view and understand the conflicts our troops engage in. It ends with a consideration of the fresh and raw war art currently coming out of the war in Ukraine, in works such as those by the Ukrainian artist who goes by the pseudonym 'Ave'.