Title: Barbican - On the Subject of War
Rating (out of 100): 85
Mood: investigational, curious, sad, mixed feelings
Timeout / Culture Critic: http://www.timeout.com/london/art/event/9218/robert-capa.html / na
Barbican: On the Subject of War (Gallery Level 3): Combining the efforts of four artists, the show explores the subject of war as captured through photography and video. An-My Lê’s videos didn’t do much for me, but I did like her photos. Capturing military manoeuvres and aircrafts / ships amongst vast expansive landscapes reminds us of how futile some of these conflicts are. However, I found the close-up images the most interesting, specifically the Target Practice and the Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal photos (the latter focusing on an empty chair and unmanned machine gun ready for battle). Omar Fast really surprised me with his video installation featuring four screens simultaneously playing – 2 showing re-enactments of two separate events that are intertwined in the story and 2 showing the actual interview of the soldier. Normally, not a fan of video art, this specific installation grabbed me because of the beautiful colours of the re-enactment videos – several stills could be amazing photos. Also, the intertwinement of the two unrelated events along with the re-enactment of the actual interview (where we see the cameraman, soundman, etc.) was an interesting touch. Showing perhaps (not unlike that show at the Photographers’ Gallery a while back) about how reality is manipulated and edited into what the audience sees.Geert van Kesteren had three rooms full of photos. My favourites were the two smaller rooms on each side, part of the Why Mister, Why? series, focusing on Iraq in 2004. The photographs are beautiful and painful to see. It’s like watching blood spill while listening to lovely music, stirring mixed emotions. One photo of some deep blue doors is suddenly brought into reality by a small child peering out from the doors with what appears to be bloodstains. Several other photos show some good moments (an Iraqi woman kissing an American (?) soldier the way a mother would kiss the son who made her proud), but those are very few and far in between.For me, the three videos of Paul Chan were the least interesting. It reminded me of what I think is the usual standard of video art – not exceptionally visually interesting and requiring too much effort from the audience.Overall a good show.
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