Images of War in Contemporary Art: Terror and Conflict in the Mass Media

Description

In Images of War in Contemporary Art, Uroš Cvoro and Kit Messham-Muir mount a challenge to the dominance of theoretical tropes of trauma, affect, and emotion that have determined how we think of images of war and terror for the last 20 years. Through analyses of visual culture from contemporary “war art” to the meme wars, they argue that the art that most effectively challenges the ethics and aesthetics of war and terror today is that which disrupts this flow–art that makes alternative perceptions of wartime both visible and possible. As a theoretical work, Images of War in Contemporary Art is richly supported by visual and textual evidence and firmly embedded in current artistic practice. Significantly, though, the book breaks with both traditional and current ways of thinking about war art–offering a radical rethinking of the politics and aesthetics of art today through analyses of a diverse scope of contemporary art that includes Ben Quilty, Abdul Abdullah (Australia), Mladen Miljanovic, Nebojša Šeric Šoba (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Hiwa K, Wafaa Bilal (Iraq), Teresa Margolles (Mexico), and Arthur Jafa (United States). Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Synopsis Introduction: Zero Hour, Ground Zero Europe’s 9/11 War Art and War Artists The Affect–Trauma Paradigm Gamification and Weaponization Military vs. Militant Notes 1 The Trauma Artist War Art/Trauma Art The Caruthian Tradition in Trauma Studies Trauma and Interpersonal Transaction Traumatainment Notes 2 Weaponizing Affect Art Theory’s Affective Turn Affect Theory in the Humanities Post-9/11 The Fungibility of Affect Politics The Ontology of Affect Figuring Conclusion Notes 3 The Gamification of Terror Christchurch, New Zealand, 1:40 p.m. (NZDT) March 15, 2019 The Lulz The New Authoritarianism The Fungibility of Transgression Memetic Warfare Gamification of Hate Conclusion Notes 4 Weaponization of History Weaponization of Life and Language Tank on a Pedestal and Hand Emerging Out of the Ground Temporality of Weaponized History The White National Space and the Unknown Knowns: The White Album Conclusion Notes 5 Military Humanism Post-war Reconciliation: Mladen Miljanović’s Sounds of the Homeland (2018) and Sharif Waked’s Beace Brocess (2010) Beace Brocess (2010) War as a Moral Order: Phil Collins’s how to make a refugee (2000) and Alban Muja’s Family Album (2019) War and Amassing of Material Resources: Hiwa K’s The Bell Project (2007–2015) Conclusion Notes 6 Militant Humanism: Repurposing War Infrastructure The Militarized Border Learning through Art Un-war View from Above The Didactic Wall Conclusion Notes Conclusion: Weaponized Art Notes Bibliography Index