Light in Wartime

curated by Rola Khayyat

Richard Mosse, Love Is The Drug, 2012
Light in Wartime brings together photographers whose works shed new light on war, both forensically and symbolically.

In a world so hounded by images of war, many of the photographers featured in Light in Wartime challenge the conventions and limitations of traditional reportage, underlining the tensions between art, fiction, and photojournalism.

Photography in this exhibition is utilized to address themes of displacement, war, and the silent stories of the aftermath of conflict. The works explore the gap between understanding wars as historical happenings, and their fictionalized representations in the entertainment world, political realm, and collective consciousness. This exhibition offers new ways of looking at conflict by turning the apparatus of photography and various apparatuses of war (such as heartbeat detectors, x-ray machines, sniper holes, and infrared film) upon themselves, to create photographs that act as metaphors.

Drawing from experimental photographic processes, the works in this show engage with the remnants and vestiges of warscapes in order to illuminate hidden truths and bring forth the presence of absence. Questions are raised about the reliability of historical accounts such as news and photographs, which significantly determine how war is transmitted, understood, and remembered. The viewer is forced to step back and reconsider how the images around us construct reality.

  • artists:
    Vartan Avakian
    Allan deSouza
    Ziyah Gafic
    Rula Halawani
    Nilu Izadi
    Seba Kurtis
    An-My Lê
    David Levinthal
    Richard Mosse
    Jo Ractliffe
    Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini
Rola Khayyat is a Lebanese visual artist and curator. In 2016 she graduated with an MFA in photography from Columbia University. Her work explores new dimensions on the representation of war, memory, and identity. Rola has curated shows in Beirut, Thessaloniki, and New York, such as the BEYroute for the third Thessaloniki Bienniale, Lattice Work at the Black and White gallery, and Simmer at Kunstraum LLC. Her work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Okk / raum 29, Catalyst Arts Belfast Photo Festival 2013, and the 21st International Istanbul Art Fair (Tuyap). Rola lives and works in NYC.




 
apexart’s program supporters past and present include the National Endowment for the Arts, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Kettering Family Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, The Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Spencer Brownstone, the Kenneth A. Cowin Foundation, Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., William Talbott Hillman Foundation/Affirmation Arts Fund, the Fifth Floor Foundation, the Consulate General of Israel in New York, The Puffin Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and administered by LMCC, funds from NYSCA Electronic Media/Film in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.