Just completed a series of works contemplating the changing face of warfare — three sculptural casts using one of my figures, the soldier.
This guy developed out of my concern about a growing militarism in recent history. We are seeing today a growing willingness among nations to use warfare as a means to conduct foreign policy. We are also seeing, in response, other nations beefing up their militaries, closely watching the current fighting to see how war is changing. I too have been glued to the news from various fronts, ever since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, out of concern for the soldiers and the people suffering at the hands of war, as well as for the democratic order.
With this series I wish to capture something of our present moment, on the way drones are changing the way we fight, but from a more individual viewpoint. In these new works, I’m not aiming at a Guernica-style pathos, nor an Iwo Jima-style celebration, so the tone is a bit meditative, introspective, balletic. Akin to the way drones keep the violence remote. The first two, Drone Intent and Drone Prone, show Sergeant Surge as a drone operator, and the last one is him in a defensive position, activating his Drone Cage superpower.