(left to right): Frederick Holland, Arms for Oil, 2005, 6 digital prints; Flame On, 2006, digital print on canvas; Risky Business, 2007, digital print and wood. Tom Burtonwood & Holly Holmes, Price War!, 2007, polyurethane. Harold Mendez, To leave, to escape, is to trace a line, 2007, mixed media installation. Frederick Holland, American Blend, 2007, steel, vinyl, liquid and electronic motor.
Edra Soto, One Vision: Hollywood Soldiers, 2003-2007, film stills: 35mm and digital photography
Frederick Holland, American Blend, 2007, steel, vinyl, liquid and electronic motor.
Frederick Holland, Risky Business, 2007, digital print and wood.
Tom Burtonwood & Holly Holmes, Price War!, 2007, polyurethane.
Ellen Rothenberg, Collection/Storage System (hpac): stealth, 2007, mixed media.
(foreground): Mary Brogger, Untitled (Persian Rug), 1993, sheet steel and 3 inch pins. (back wall): Michael Rakowitz, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, mixed media installation. (right wall): Lynda Barry, Fred Milton Series, 2001-2006, ink on paper (12 works).November 4 - Janury 20, 2008, Gallery 1
Works by Lynda Barry, Wafaa Bilal, Mary Brogger, Adam Brooks, Burtonwood & Holmes, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Fred Holland, Harold Mendez, Michael Rakowitz, Ellen Rothenberg, Edra Soto, Paula White and Dolores Wilber.
Curated by Barbara Koenen
Focusing on the U.S. conflict in the Middle East over the past 10 years, Consuming War addresses the ways the American media and consumer culture have manipulated and influenced our perceptions of war, often turning it into a spectacle for American consumption. While war is an underlying theme in all the works, each addresses the concept of war, and our relationship to it, from a variety of angles, creating pieces that range from political cartoons to sculptures that recreate the archeological artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq and large suspended papier mâché bombs made from sale advertisements. Timely in its subject matter, Consuming War offers an innovative platform in which the complex and multifarious connections between war, capitalism, American consumer culture, and our everyday lives can be re-situated and critically examined.
View a 9 minute tour of the exhibition with Barbara Koenen and Allison Peters recorded for CAN TV (filmed and edited by Carrie Ruckel).
Listen to WBEZ’s interview with the curator about the exhibition.
The Art Center thanks those who gave individual contributions to the exhibition, including Craig Ahmer, Jane Fulton Alt, Sidney Barton, The Frances Dittmer Family Foundation, Kim Freiders, John Himmelfarb and Molly Day, Esther Grimm, Justine Jentes and Daniel Kuruna Laurel Lipkin, Jackie Kazarian and Peter Cunningham, Paul Klein, Barbara Koenen and Tim Samuelson, Annie Morse, Harold Olin, the Malachi Ritscher family, Karen Paluzzi Steele, Laura Samson, Eva Silverman, Paula White, and Roberta Zabel.
Consuming War is supported by
Newcity Chicago
The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq
Experimental Station
Reviews of this exhibition have been written by:
The Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Reader
FNews Magazine
New City
TimeOut Chicago
Image: Mary Brogger, All of it/Everything, 2006, steel.