By The National Veterans Art Museum
Marking the 10th-year anniversary of the War in Iraq and in honor of International Women’s Day, the National Veterans Art Museum (NVAM) is proud to open an exciting new exhibition of art by five female Iraqi artists.
Not About Bombs addresses how a female perspective can fit into the modern context of turmoil and conflict through art and avoid falling into the typical ways that women are represented and misrepresented.
The NVAM will be free and open to the public from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 9, 2013 with a keynote at 3 p.m. and a panel discussion at 4 p.m.
The exhibit is curated by Tricia Khutoretsky.
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The women in this exhibit contribute art that is visually and conceptually accomplished, but unpredictable and emotionally engaging. Because if anything, as a long, drawn-out, mind-numbing war comes to a “close,” emotional investments in Iraq are few and far between.
This exhibit will not be what you expect. It is about war. It is about Iraq. But it presents contemporary art by Iraqi women to deliberately explore and challenge expectations.
Panel discussion – Not About Bombs: Art and Identity Beyond Conflict. This panel discussion among five women aims to unpack the binary of ally/enemy, self/other – a universal wartime strategy. The conversation will explore the power of contemporary art by Iraqi women artists to both clarify and complicate the identity of the “other,” whether in or beyond conflict, and attempt to expand the discourse of identity and war beyond the constraints of popular media.
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The show will be open to the public from Saturday, March 9, 2013, through September 2013.
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“Not About Bombs is not just about gender,” says art committee co-chair Ash Kyrie. “Not About Bombs also raises questions of nationality, conflict, art, expectation and representation.”
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“Part of the project in bringing Not About Bombs to the National Veterans Art Museum is the effort to recontextualize modern narratives of war and of war participants,” says participating artist Erica Slone.
“This exhibit insists that viewers broaden their perspective of war and the costs of war. The artists in this show are Iraqi women dealing with questions of identity and representations amid anti-Islam rhetoric and conflict. By using their unique positions as Iraqis, as women, as survivors of war, and as artists, they are pushing the discourse of war beyond conventional expectations.
“The art in this show pushes war art in new directions, finds new metaphors to reach arts patrons, and expands the visual vocabulary of war beyond grenades, guns and other weapons. Simply put, this show is not about bombs. It’s about art and the way art can be a catalyst for bigger discussions, and how art can operate to bridge cultural misunderstandings and misrepresentations.”
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Comments welcome.
Posted on March 7, 2013