Spc. Lee Davis US Army photo 031025-A-357 Seen through a night-vision device, paratroopers conduct a raid on a suspected terrorist's home in Fallujah, Iraq. The Soldiers are assigned to the 82nd Airbourne Division's Company B, 1st Battalion 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. This photo appeared on www.army.mil
RSS Blog Feed

Blog

Thomas Hirschhorn: The Incommensurable Banner

13.10.08 | Julian Stallabrass

Comment on this exhibition, on show at Fabrica, Brighton, below:

There are many lengthy and heartfelt responses in the gallery's comments book. One asks: where are the pictures of the victims of the terrorists?

Well, there are undoubtedly many of them in the banner. Hirschhorn does not ask of these pictures--who are the dead, are they terrorist or soldier or civilian? There are also pictures from different wars included. His interest is partly in weapons as agents of terror as well as death (as used by all sides), and in bringing to light the subterranean circulation of such photographs.

Artists:
Thomas Hirschhorn 
Tags:
Exhibitions  War 
26 Comment(s):
Read Comments  Add a comment Comments RSS Feed

I've never been more affected by an exhibition than this one. It was like visiting a concentration camp in Berlin

Phil Bedford. 15th Oct 2008. 16:52

This exhibition shocked me to the core, as the person above says, never has an exhibition affected me more. It felt confusing to be looking at these images in the same way you might stand before a Jeff Wall, examining details, whilst wanting to turn away I also felt compelled to look at the act of turning away felt representative of what many of us do when we see stories of war in the middle east in the news.

I came away with a sense of utter depression and helplessness. What to do? What to do?

Matt Johanssen, London. 16th Oct 2008. 12:21

I interviewed Mark Wallinger about his work, 'State Britain' that reconstructed Brian Haw's protest piece that the police tore down from Parliament Square. That showed many similar images of what the Coalition had done in Iraq. Mark said something very interesting about Haw: that it must take great strength to live with that material every day, to wake up to it, as Haw literally did.

You could say something similar about Hirschhorn too, when thinking of the strength it must have taken to compose and collage the banner. Hirschhorn wants his viewer to be active, not to emulate him, not to be told what to do, but to see and respond--somehow. How, of course, is for you to work out.

Julian Stallabrass. 27th Oct 2008. 21:43

Bold and uncompromising, if a little obvious. This is just one truth, the framing in an exhibition in that most liberal of cities distorts the message of the piece to bend it purely to one end of the political spectrum. Where are the Al-Quaida victims in this picture? Very provoking piece, though, expertly realised.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:34

Suitably disturbing; comment though that the biggest casualties of war by the end of C20 are civilian 90%, i.e. women, children and ‘ineligible’ men (UN). One thing that stands out is the absence of Caucasian victims thus the exhibition and war is …someplace out there far away… a people who is not immediately recognisable or identifiable with white/ Caucasian viewer. Still… it’s important to see.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:34

Nauseating and overpowering. This is an exhibition that needs the widest possible audience. If we could get the likes of Blair, Bush and Brown to understand the consequences of their actions.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:34

If everyone saw these important images, there would be no more war!

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:35

Powerful & eye-opening, I am forever affected and want to make the world a better place. Peace and love is the only way…

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:35

Appalling and necessary—but I was not sure if I felt the pictures humanised the victims of war or de-humanised them. Not nice. But how could it be?

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:36

Lovely colours.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:36

This is an important work. Please take away the wall!

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:37

It’s interesting how easy it is to become inured to the suffering of others when viewing a block of images such as these and the others in the University gallery.
Photography’s failure is how it distances you from suffering whilst pulling you close. Here is near ‘bodily’ contact. The record is away and other, these are other people. The presentation of this work, in a sort of discotheque of colour lessens the specialness of each individual event.
It won’t stop now, that would be naïve to think.
People are resilient and can learn to cope with all sorts of events, perhaps that’s why we will continue to experience and perpetrate aggressive events such as war.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:38

Although this piece is indeed shocking and extreme, I feel it does not so much highlight the suffering inflicted by war as create a gallery of gore that appeals to the dark, voyeuristic side of our nature, that which compels us to slow down when we pass a car-accident. We are horrified by what we see, yet we cannot turn away. We are constantly bombarded by media reports of bombings and suicide attacks, friendly fire incidents and ghosts of past war atrocities, yet we do not allow the victims of these awful events to rest easy, to dredge up these images and display them to an audience which has (largely) never experienced the sorrow of conflict firsthand, an audience who will recoil in horror and make offhand statements about the transience of life exclaim ‘What’s the point of it all?’ before going to lunch, making light jokes about what they have seen, is not a respectful treatment of the dead. Would we respond in the same way if it were images of OUR loved ones splashed across the banner? Would we pace up and down it in respectful silence, contemplating all the evil occurring in far flung corners of the world, brought to us safely anaesthetised through the medium of our televisions and the omni-net? NO. We would fall to our knees and we would wail.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:39

We crave this sort of thing in our lives. That’s why we stare at it. We talk about being responsible, ‘us’ and ‘them’ and isn’t it terrible with a degree of envy. Secretly we want the face on the crushed melon skull to be one we recognise.
I read somewhere that we cope far better with large, shocking events than with the nature of our everyday modern lives (it’s a shame I can’t write down where).

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:39

Shocking images of the dead. But what of the living, with horrifying wounds mental as well as physical?

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:39

Incredible, in comparison to the playful propaganda we witness in the comforts of our own homes. The work reinforces my beliefs, and strengthens my morals. Furthermore this kind of ‘work’ needs more publicity to enforce the message that ‘war’ (murder) is wrong.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:40

Would be interesting to see work shown in towns less liberal than Brighton—Not one of these images has ever been screened on National TV News—Why Not? Maybe the artist could attempt to show it in public.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 21:41

Immediately my heart felt heavy, immediately holding back tears. Raw emotional stuff. Needs to be exhibited in front of White House & 10 Downing Street but we all know this can’t happen. Anyway coming from Belfast I know the pain of war. I have seen it and felt it. Bless all those who can’t feel, let them feel—let them see how precious life is.
Thank you.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 22:58

THANK YOU. Now at last I have the image of yet another announcement, e.g. ‘…a bomb in Baghdad today killed 20 and injured 120’. Because the BBC and press understandably cannot show such images. I am grateful for a glimpse of reality.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 22:58

I was afraid to go in but I looked through the glass & I’m glad that someone is showing people what war is really like. It’s time we were honest. Living here we are shielded from what is happening & people need to be aware.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 22:59

Most of these pics are a few years old—a shame people couldn’t see them when the ‘war’ was still an issue in the public mind.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 22:59

It’s like Brian Haw’s dark twin. The Napalm Girl in the ‘60s turned public opinion—in this time of sanitised news. I hope these images escape the gallery and show the dirt behind the ‘war on terror’.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 22:59

Incredible you have shown what they don’t want us to experience. Great the way it has been presented straight in your face—no fancy framing. So powerful and emotional. Thank you.

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 23:00

So powerful it’s quite sickening. I think it’s fantastic that someone has had the commitment to produce this graphic exhibition. Less is not always more. Maybe we need waking up to the reality of war again! This is not CGI!!!
Inspiring…thank you, from an ambitious photographer thinking of photographing war. An awakening experience…

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 23:00

I find this really upsetting and unnecessary. Now I just feel morose and miserable, Why why why?

From the comments book. 3rd Nov 2008. 23:01

When I saw the Incommensurable banner at the Fabrica Gallery I could see that the images were from many countries and conflicts. I wondered how long the bodies were left to rot before and if they were buried, I wondered how many more photographers and artists would document the atrocities of wars, armed and in many cases, condoned and colluded by the west? It made me want to protest against arms sales and the probagation of war. It made me question and weep.

J. James. 9th Jan 2009. 18:46
Add your comments
Name:
 
  Please enter the code shown above.