Last June my friend Peggy and I visited the exhibit "Targets" by the artist Joyce Kozloff at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It is a colorful globe you can walk into and look closely at the locations on the maps. The artist’s concern is regarding the barbarity of aerial warfare. “We are constantly told that our air force has incurred no casualties while dropping bombs on the enemy, but we hear very little about the victims, often referred to as “collateral damage.” She explains in her statement that as the idea evolved, it became clear it wasn’t about a particular war, but fifty-five years of US aerial bombardment.*
These places are mapped with her beautiful cartography inside the wooden globe. We lingered within the round structure marveling at this information, much of which we knew nothing about. We talked about the wars, fighting and bombings of our present day. We tried to imagine how it would feel to have our own neighborhoods invaded and destroyed, to be tortured or killed, or to witness our loved ones being massacred. How would we ever be able to move on with our lives?!
It is difficult to comprehend such horror. We finally just looked at each other. I mean, what can you say? And then Peggy was moved to transpose her body into various positions and contort her face to express what this terror might be like. I pointed my camera and photographed her movements. These poses became the inspiration for my Dance Studio.
Dance Studio: 23” x 28” x 2” Water-mix oil paint & pastel chalk on gessoed masonite surface inserted in old window where the glass had been broken out.
This painting was included in the exhibit entitled "Looking In Looking Out"
For more information on Joyce Kozloff's amazing artworks I offer two links: