How can art capture the magnitude of war? How do media depictions of war confront or hide its reality? How can abstraction reveal our humanity in the face of war's incomprehensible atrocities? Alexis Corral investigates these questions in a public gallery talk on the exhibition Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2011. Highlighting the work of select artists—including Dia al-Azzawi, Ghaith Abdulahad, Rachel Khedoori, Hanaa Malallah, and Louise Lawler—the talk explores the complexity of representation and image-making in war. Using different tactics, ranging from realism to abstraction, these artists draw attention to how modes of representation intersect with positions of proximity or distance from war.
Presented by Alexis Corral, Fall 2019 Curatorial Intern, MoMA PS1.