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Disasters of War

© Christine Hamm

Last year, I saw Jack and Dinos Chapman's "Disasters of War" which was presented along with Goya's etchings on the same topic. This week, I got to see how war's disasters feel on the inside. Tuesday morning, I was ready to write an article on computer generated poetry and the death of the author. By Tuesday noon, all I could think about was death.

I saw the towers go down. I had a perfect view from the 19th Floor of the building where I work. And I heard a live, blow by blow, commentary on the radio as it happened, and the news anchorwoman started screaming and swearing (that part of the transcript was edited out in rebroadcasts).

This is not the first time I've experienced something like this. The first time was up close, 16 years ago, when terrorists in Italy set off a bomb in a train I was riding on. I was very lucky, but most of the people around me were not. I think that incident probably has something to do with my reaction to this current situation; which is basically, I can't stop crying.

I kept trying to ignore my feelings and write my article. Words escaped me. Then I decided to tackle it head on, and now the words are overflowing. Along with the horror, and the horrible feelings and sore eyes and nightmares, etc., came enlightenment. I really felt I could understand "Disasters of War" by the Chapman brothers for the first time. Disasters of War is a series of 6' by 6' photographs of tiny model figures in horrific poses. The figures torture each other, morph into disfigured centaurs and two-headed monsters, cannibalize each other, and sexually abuse each other and corpses. All the action takes place in the context of war -- the figures wear nazi or army uniforms, and they are surrounded by military gear. When I first saw it, it made me sick to my stomach. But now I see how it represents a kind of truth. This is what war and killing is really like; it's not heroic, it's not pretty or tragic, it's just disgusting animalistic and awful. The Chapman brothers use the tiny model figures because that's how most little boys start playing at war, before they grow up and throw their bodies into the gears of the military and get ground into so much sausage. War is a disaster. Nothing more.

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