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In
Images of War in Contemporary Art, Uros Cvoro and Kit Messham-Muir mount a challenge to the dominance of theoretical tropes of trauma, affect, and emotion that have determined how we think of images of war and terror for the last 20 years. Through analyses of visual culture from contemporary "war art" to the meme wars, they argue that the art that most effectively challenges the ethics and aesthetics of war and terror today is that which disrupts this flow-art that makes alternative perceptions of wartime both visible and possible.
As a theoretical work,
Images of War in Contemporary Art is richly supported by visual and textual evidence and firmly embedded in current artistic practice. Significantly, though, the book breaks with both traditional and current ways of thinking about war art-offering a radical rethinking of the politics and aesthetics of art today through analyses of a diverse scope of contemporary art that includes Ben Quilty, Abdul Abdullah (Australia), Mladen Miljanovic, Nebojsa Seric Soba (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Hiwa K, Wafaa Bilal (Iraq), Teresa Margolles (Mexico), and Arthur Jafa (United States).
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Zero Hour, Ground Zero
Chapter 1: The Trauma Artist
Chapter 2: Weaponising Affect
Chapter 3: The Gamification of Terror
Chapter 4: Weaponisation of History
Chapter 5: Military Humanism
Chapter 6: Militant Humanism: Repurposing War Infrastructure
Conclusion: Weaponised Art
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Uroš Cvoro is Associate Professor in Art Theory at UNSW Australia, Arts, Design & Architecture. His research interests include contemporary art and politics, cultural representations of nationalism, post-socialist and post-conflict art. His books include Transitional Aesthetics: Art at The Edge of Europe (2018) and Turbo-folk Music and Cultural Representations of National Identity in Former Yugoslavia (2014). With Kit Messham-Muir, he is co-author of Images of War in Contemporary Art: Terror and Conflict in the Mass Media (Bloomsbury, 2021).Kit Messham-Muir is Professor in Art in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. His research interests include the art and visual culture of war, as well as the studio practice of contemporary artists. With Uroš Cvoro, he is co-author of Images of War in Contemporary Art: Terror and Conflict in the Mass Media (Bloomsbury, 2021) and author of Double War: Shaun Gladwell, visual culture and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (2015).
Summary
In Images of War in Contemporary Art, Uroš Cvoro and Kit Messham-Muir mount a challenge to the dominance of theoretical tropes of trauma, affect, and emotion that have determined how we think of images of war and terror for the last 20 years. Through analyses of visual culture from contemporary "war art" to the meme wars, they argue that the art that most effectively challenges the ethics and aesthetics of war and terror today is that which disrupts this flow—art that makes alternative perceptions of wartime both visible and possible.
As a theoretical work, Images of War in Contemporary Art is richly supported by visual and textual evidence and firmly embedded in current artistic practice. Significantly, though, the book breaks with both traditional and current ways of thinking about war art—offering a radical rethinking of the politics and aesthetics of art today through analyses of a diverse scope of contemporary art that includes Ben Quilty, Abdul Abdullah (Australia), Mladen Miljanovic, Nebojša Šeric Šoba (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Hiwa K, Wafaa Bilal (Iraq), Teresa Margolles (Mexico), and Arthur Jafa (United States).
Foreword
Synthesises current critical thinking on art and war with primary interview material collected by the authors with artists of contemporary war art.
