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. This exhibition was curated by Barbara Koenen.
Featured Artists
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.
PRESS
Consuming War Interviews, F News Magazine
Sponsors
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, and Experimental Station.
