Fighting the “good war” against evil has been the theme of hegemony, rationalizing the call to take up arms. There is a tendency of societies to pretend unawareness that the majority of victims in any conflict are women and children. History is whitewashed in the hands of the victor. Questions of morality are evaded. The victims become invisible.In this body of work I explore “the culture of make believe”. In my painting, abstract meets representational. Layers of color, geometrics and organic fields interact to create tension. There is a sense of mapping informed by Google satellite images, history and real statistics. My hope is to create a visual awareness leaving the viewer with open-ended questions.
In one painting, titled, “The Invisibles”, an earthy abstraction of an aerial view of a village in Darfur is overlaid with tiny circles and rectangles in brilliant cadmium red. These shapes conceptualize the children abducted in a past raid. The innocent who become future child soldiers through intense physical and mental indoctrination.
As an artist activist I want to go beyond opening a dialogue and directly help women and child victims by working with PHR as a sponsor.
