09 September 2009
Queen & County talks programme
As Associate Curator at firstsite, Jes worked with the University Gallery in Essex to devise a programme of talks to discuss issues relating to conflict and art. The programme coincided with the showing of Steve McQueen's Queen & Country project at the University of Essex Gallery.
Events included:
Bearing witness: the role of war artists in the 21st century
Speakers: Paul Seawright and David Cotterrell
Internationally acclaimed artists Paul Seawright and David Cotterrell talked about their experiences of working in Afghanistan under the auspices of the Imperial War Museum and the Wellcome Trust.
Seawright visited Afghanistan in 2002 where he created Hidden, a powerful series of photographs which depict minefields and battle sites devoid of people, highlighting the fact that much of the conflict in Afghanistan is invisible. Cotterrell spent time in Helmand Province with the Joint Forces Medical Group in 2007 witnessing operations on combat trauma victims in the field hospital at Camp Bastion.
Conflict and pipe bands: the Troubles in Northern Ireland
Speakers: Ulrike Smalley, Curator, Imperial War Museum
Roddy Buchanan, artist
Scottish artist Roddy Buchanan discussed his current work on a film which explores the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Commissioned by the Imperial War Museum in 2008, Buchanan is focusing on Loyalist and Republican pipe bands, considering how war and conflict shapes the lives of band members.
www.firstsite.uk.net
Image: Valley, 2002 by Paul Seawright
Imperial War Museum Collection
posted by Jes Fernie at
12:16 PM
