Choosing Violence

Abstract

Through my current body of artwork I am venturing to give voice to the violence of humankind and the role each of us play in facilitating an endless cycle of barbarity. Much of the work is autobiographical, drawing heavily from my past and world-views. Jean Baudrillard writes, “The real victory of the simulators of war is to have drawn everyone into this rotten simulation” (253). My childhood was filled with playthings of a violent nature; toy guns, army men, tanks, and fighter jets. Fantasies of war were acted out with glee, as I pumped round after imaginary round from a plastic machine gun into unseen adversaries. As a young adult I became a part of the Military-Industrial Complex in the private sector where I spent two years working in the aerospace industry producing fabrication and assembly drawings for satellites, military aircraft, and mobile artillery units. Since becoming a father I have reflected on my own childhood and my past employment and come to realize the truth contained in the adage “history repeats itself”. Growing up in the 1980s I can recall a significant fear of the Soviet Union and nuclear obliteration at their hands, and now, thanks to the nightly news, my son may have radical Islamists and terrorists as the source for his nightmares. Always a new enemy, always some new evil to vanquish, war without end.