Description
Book SynopsisHow artists have examined the legacies of American-led military engagement in Iraq
The 1991 Gulf War marked the start of a lengthy period of American-led military involvement in Iraq that led to more than a decade of sanctions, the 2003 Iraq War, and ongoing repercussions throughout the region. Though the Iraq War officially ended in 2011, artists have continued to examine these conflicts and their impacts. Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 19912011 charts the effects of these wars on cultural production in Iraq and throughout its diasporas, as well as responses to the wars in the West, revealing how this period was defined by unsettling intersections of spectacularized violence and new imperialisms. The exhibition features more than 80 artists and collectives, including Afifa Aleiby, Dia al-Azzawi, Thuraya al-Baqsami, Paul Chan, Harun Farocki, Guerrilla Girls, Thomas Hirschhorn, Hiwa K, Hanaa Malallah, Monira Al Qadiri, Nuha al-Radi and Ala Younis.<
Trade Review
The best works in "Theater of Operations" dont address the war directly so much as have it in the background -- Rahel Aima * Art In America *
a primary document of a catastrophe three decades past. It is also...a searing image of the present. -- William S. Smith * Art In America *
[A} powerful view of the cultural impact of the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars with which American art institutions too rarely engage. -- Jason Farago * New York Times *
