Objects of War

2020
Edition of 3
1000 mm X 1526 mm
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War is the last possible creative act…. the 20th century’s most important scientific discoveries and artistic creations are mapped in time with the incidence of wars, massacres and genocide to reveal reoccurring patterns of creative human output that flourish after conflict.

The lenticular print displays a matrix of 288 creation events and the most recent conflict event that preceded each. Tilt left reveals the date of the conflict and numbers of dead – tilt right reveals the creation date and details of the creation event.

The six frame animation reveals the separation in time between creation and conflict events – entries where there is no visual change in date means both events occurred at the same time. The dataset reveals a surprising relationship where scientific and artistic creations often follow wars resulting in a significant positive correlation between destruction and creative output.

Though the cosmically balancing forces of creation, maintenance and destruction are integral to Eastern philosophies as in the Hindu triad manifestation of the supreme God in three forms of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer, the interdependence of each on the other is rarely discussed let alone acknowledged in Western Judeo-Christian cultures.

Objects of War brings a data perspective to the reconciliation of seemingly paradoxical approaches to the cosmological metaphor of balance in the universe with the philosophical doctrine of ultimate reality.