| Dogs
of War is an installation in the foyer of the East Gallery
of a series of works by Portland artist Kay Marshall. She creates
a small card for each American soldier killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars. These beeswax-coated cards, about three by four inches, hang
in chains from the ceiling, or are clipped on top of antique chess
pawns symbolizing the government's use of soldiers as pawns in the
inhumane game of armed conflict. One side of each card is stamped
with a palm tree. Marshall covers the stamped tree trunk with a
matchstick that she has lit and then blown out, just as that soldier's
life was snuffed out. The opposite side of each card is stamped
with one of four breeds of dogs, referencing soldiers' dog tags,
dog-face soldiers, dogged fighters, and, to quote Shakespeare, "the
dogs of war."
Marshall was inspired
to begin this work when, on invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. military
developed a set of playing cards picturing the most wanted members
of then-president Saddam Hussein's government. Marshall felt that
the real "most wanted" in Iraq were the soldiers whose
lives were and are being lost. The U.S. government banned media
images of coffins returning dead soldiers, so this is her way of
recognizing the ravages of war. Says Marshall, "I’m amazed
at how little [the Iraq War] has impacted anyone I know." Her
installation aims to bring home the impact of our losses. |
