List

1 -  Afghan Tank

2 - Dead American soldier

3 - Am I dead yet

4 - Contact (Afghan dog)

5 - Rape

6 - detainee

7 - IED

8 - Suicid bomber

9 - Holy man

10 - Beheading

11 - Afghan wedding

12 - Fallen

13 - IED

Exhibition: Conflict

Conflict                                                                                                                                               

Who are we without wars,

Wars are there for a reason.

Canada entered the War on Terror in fall 2001, the operation Enduring Freedom. It was a coalition of 37 countries under a United Nation’s mandate to change the fundamentalist regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan. So Afghanistan became the focus of a conflict where the west is set to prove its ideological supremacy, its democratic way of life. Here was a land half way around the world that no Canadian had ever knew, but it became essential to rescue.

In the ten years that will be marked as The Afghan War Canada had 156 deaths and hundreds wounded. Words such as Islam, fundamentalism, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, I.E.D, hearts and minds, and more became buzzwords in the lexicon of day-to-day life. Unexpected and strange, it was a clash of two cultures, two religions, two geographies, even two historical periods. How strange it might have felt for our troops the moments of contact. For many that did not return, the fallen soldiers, this was not a conventional Canadian ending, not the Canadian Dream.

Conflict is a body of work exploring the uncanny and painful affects of this war, of this clash of cultures. The Afghan War is the collision of two worlds: one with technologically advanced economy, high tech weaponry, super soldiers on high moral grounds, and a media-hype coverage that virtually brings the conflict in the populations’ living room. On the other side sits a war-torn, traditional, “backward” society, with an incomprehensible life style, extreme faith, extreme poverty, deeply religious, pure but real, a segregated society that makes man divine, sees woman as sin, progress as evil, and arts satanic.

As the conflict drags on, there is no ultimate victory. The media loses interest and bored it moves on, people move on. The Afghan war becomes a conflict fought in an imaginary far away land.

And then how sad, empty, and unreal it feels when the news of a soldier killed, randomly and without a cause by an improvised explosive device is announced. For a society that cherishes life and always tries to make sense of individual loss, finding answers to anything, it is baffling, almost shocking. Why him? There was no battle, no heroic hand-to-hand combat, just a routine everyday drive on a what ever street, in a where ever village, ending deadly, a life with incredible potential ends. (And I feel it). He was my friend, my neighbor, or just a guy in the subway that I chatted yesterday. The absurdity of the death is senseless, is profound, distant.  The super ideology does not make sense anymore.

Conflict is an expression of the clash of cultures. Relying on the tradition of war etchings and the world of symbolism, it brings to the front the poetics of war. Dark lines and colourful surfaces create an intimate while painfully distanced sense of the moments, of life and death, of beliefs and struggles. Conflict is to make sense of the fight for a cause despite the sacrifice of a glorious life. It is homage to sentiments of patriotism and hope, a tribute to the fallen.

   Afshin Matlabi   2011

SAVAC and the Glenhyrst Art Gallery present

Between Us: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Curated by Srimoyee Mitra

With Roy Caussy, Bonnie Devine, Afshin Matlabi, Ali Kazimi and Jeff Thomas, Greg Staats, Yudi Sewraj and Bear Witness,

Dates: 29^th November 2009 to 22^nd January 2010

Between Us: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue brings together dynamic and compelling works by contemporary artists of South Asian and Indigenous backgrounds who explore the complex relations between belonging and displacement in Canada. Emerging from concerns raised by the incipient discourses in social justice movements that explore the relations between migrant rights and Indigenous sovereignty, Between Us: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue facilitates alternate ways of engaging and interacting with one another that do not perpetuate structural biases, assimilation or class privilege. The exhibition aims to build greater awareness and understanding of the cultural differences and experiences of discrimination. Artworks in the exhibition rupture the stereotypical burden of authenticity and homogeneity associated with both cultures to draw out lesser-known narratives and encounters with questions of place, space and memory as it relates to the contemporary experiences of the artists. Questioning the responsibilities of migrants living on fraught lands and the ongoing ghettoization of different cultural communities, Between Us: A Cross Cultural Dialogue explores the possibility of developing integrated dialogue, which engage in the rich cultural diversity, multiple viewpoints and histories that constitute contemporary Canadian society.

Between Us: A Cross- Cultural Dialogue resonates deeply in the city of Brantford that is located right next to the Six Nations of the Grand River. In the last few decades, Brantford has also become home to a number of South Asian immigrants, who constitute the largest immigrant group in the city. Named after the Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant, the history of Brantford is inextricably linked to the history of the Iroquois Confederacy. Brant led many from the Iroquois Confederacy to ally with the British during the US war of independence that lasted for seven years (1775 -1882), at the end of the war, he was granted land along Grand River for his loyalty to the British and also to compensate the Iroquois for the lands that they had lost during the war. In 1784, Brant moved his men from New York State to the land granted to them along the Grand River. Today, the city continues to be an important centre for Haudenosaunee culture (traditional name for Iroquois Confederacy which is made up of the historical alliance between Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Ondonaga, Seneca and Tuscarora) and co-exists along with the majority Caucasian Europeans and minority immigrant groups. In this context, Between Us: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue stresses the importance of cross-cultural conversations, education and exchange to overcome misgivings and misunderstandings and build mutual respect and trust.

The Iroquois and South Asians in Brant county both left their homes to move to another land almost two centuries apart from each other, in very different circumstances, eras and contexts. Referred to by the same name – “Indian”, a word fraught with its associations to histories of assimilation, colonization and indentured labour. It also suppresses the differences between and within the First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples and the South Asian diaspora. In Canada, the word bears the weight of the heinous exploitation of the First Peoples by legislated government policy. This exhibition explores how immigrant communities can engage with Canada’s vexed history in ways that do not perpetuate the “settler” mentality and assumptions of the dominant culture. In Between Us: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue artists experiment and examine the strategy of collaboration and working together as the first steps towards building solidarity and develop a deeper understanding of one another.