statement

Inevitably, my work emerges from the stand point of the Western male voyeur. In some senses as the cultural by product of the MTV generation I am at once both the artist and the viewer - anesthetised by a life long barrage of sanitised war imagery fed to me intravenously via 24hour news feeds, YouTube and mobile phone virals.

My War Scenes series are composed without any conscious reference to specific battles or war imagery; the only historical anchor is determined within the factory in China where the toy soldiers are manufactured. In creating the series I have complete control over the battle – over who wins and who dies; these are my wars but yet they are not. I use no primary sources of reference to construct these images however they reference every iconic photograph I have ever viewed; any news feed I have ever watched; every war film I have ever seen because these images are subconsciously imbedded within me.

In constructing these scenes I am constructing my own fake histories and with this a sense of irony emerges within the works. By their very subject my works are political however I am not seeking to glorify war – in fact I am highlighting the detachment of the viewer from these very images. Unlike most war photography these are not works of propaganda; these works are as much about the process of detachment as they are about battle itself. The intervention of the artist within war imagery only serves to remove the viewer further from the content itself – as with the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima whereby an image has come to stand for an entire conflict.  War in this sense has been removed, not just the war itself, but the individual, their identity and the context. My works therefore reflect upon the representation rather than the truth of war and truth becomes the first victim.

For each generation, visual imagery mediates our experience and understanding of conflict. I do not intend for my works to glorify war; instead I hope that they serve to highlight the fact that throughout the 20 and 21 century the Western subject has become saturated by first hand images of conflict which have only served to distance the viewer from the reality of war even further. War is no longer real.

dave farnham 2010