Soldier Boys
2022-2023
Group exhibition, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin (2023)
Has the Second Cold War started? As military aid pours into Ukraine from Europe and the US to help the country’s beleaguered defenders in their fight against a deranged Russian regime, it is tempting to think so. There are echoes of Vietnam, Afghanistan and Korea here, in which a proxy state becomes a battleground for competing ideologies. Meanwhile, tensions are nearing breaking point in the Far East, with China becoming ever more vocal in its sovereignty claims over Taiwan. Looming over both theatres is the mushroom-cloud-shaped spectre of nuclear war.
Soldier Boys is a restaging of found photos taken by the photographer’s grandfather, a soldier, during the British occupation of Yemen in 1958. By incorporating elements of photomontage, the new scenes highlight the absurdity and incongruity of war in today’s Western society, as well as the fears, expectations and contradictions surrounding military mobilisation within a modern capitalist context.
