For Frank
Date: 5th January 2009A series of photographic tryptichs and dyptichs depicting the treatment of wounded in Afghanistan.
After two years of negotiations between the Wellcome Trust, Imperial War Museum and Ministry of Defence, David Cotterrell was invited to observe the Joint Forces Medical Group at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He underwent basic training, was taught the rudiments of battlefield first aid and was issued with body armour. In November 2007, he flew in an RAF C17 from Brize Norton to Kandahar, the sole passenger in a plane loaded with half a million rounds of palletised munitions and medical supplies to join Operation Herrick 7.
Focusing on these experiences and their inevitable aftermath, Cotterrell has produced a new body of photographic work. Sightlines, Principals and Supernumerary are arranged as diptychs and triptychs. Shot in the Operating Theatre, these images reference painters famous for their use of chiaroscuro. The lighting and formal arrangements caught in the artist’s lens for a moment distract the viewer’s gaze, suggesting the sublime beauty within horror, the human scale compassion in the face of destruction.
Cotterrell’s work for the exhibition reflects on a brief period of time in Helmand Province, in which two British soldiers died, 29 were wounded in action, 74 were admitted to the field hospital, 71 Aeromed evacuations were recorded and an undisclosed number of civilian, insurgent and Afghan National Army soldiers were treated.
The series consisted of one dyptich and two tryptichs. Each individual image was hand-printed at 99 x 149cm and mounted on Aluminium.
The series was produced in a limited edition of three plus one Artists' Proof.
Materials:c-type photographic prints mounted on Aluminium
Categories:
Gallery , Irritant , Photographic , Series , Site NeutralNews:
David Cotterrell : Kino Eye, Bearing witness: the role of war artists in the 21st century - 26.10.09, Shock and Awe - 19.07.14, Art and War: Truth, Propaganda and Protest - 09.08.14, Trauma - 20.11.15Bibliography:
Transmission: Host, Bloody Reality, War Culture and the Contest of Images, War and Medicine, A Heavy Reckoning: War, Medicine and Survival in Afghanistan and Beyond, War and Art : A Visual History of Modern Conflict, Art in the Danger Zone, Back from the Front, Memory and the Aftermath of War, Krieg und MedizinExhibitions:
Artraker Award Exhibition, Aesthetic Distance, Shock and Awe, Trauma, Aqua Art Miami, War and Medicine (Canada), AfghanistanAwards:
War & Medicine : War Artist CommissionTalks:
TED : How I Almost Lost My Faith in Photography (v), RUSI : Subjective Views (a), BBC Radio 4 : The Two Minute Silence (a), Culture in a Time of Conflict (a), David Cotterrell War and Medicine, Culture and Consequence, David Cotterrell in Conversation, Army medics on the front-line (v), David Cotterrell on Afghanistan (v), Bearing witness: the role of war artists in the 21st century, BBC Radio 4 Today : Injury and Conflict (a)Downloads:
David Cotterrell : Kino Eye, Guardian G2 : Bloody Reality, War and Medicine : Interview Transcript, RSA Journal : Art and Conflict, TimeOut : Military Responses, RSA Lecture : Culture in a Time of Conflict, War and Medicine : Artists Diary, David Cotterrell : Aesthetic DistanceReviews:
artsandecologyblog : Afghanistan - art and war, artsandecologyblog : David Cotterrell - Truth in the mundane, ameliasmagazine.com : Aesthetic distance, Art Monthly : War and Medicine, Yorkshire Post : The Silence That Still Resonates, Creators/VICE : Artists Take On Trauma Recovery in DublinSponsors:
