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"Collateral Damage and Other Stories"

An exhibition by Noel Hodnett

This exhibition continues the theme of last year’s “Disasters of War” show. Although the instability in the Middle East is the result of many complex historical and political factors, the focus of this exhibition is the plight of people desperately seeking safe-haven from atrocities of unspeakable proportions. Countless refugees have lost their lives in an attempt to cross borders for what they believe will be a better life in Europe or elsewhere. The number of people who have drowned while trying to cross the waters between Turkey and Greece or Libya and Italy can only be guessed at. Bodies are washing up on beaches all over the the Mediterranean. Pictures of 3 year old Aylan Kurdi and his older brother Galip lying dead on Turkey’s idyllic Turquoise Coast sent a powerful message to the World. Desperate people fleeing situations so dire that entire families will risk life and limb to escape...often with devastating results. The life vests included in this exhibition have special significance as they were discarded by refugees landing on the Greek island of Lesvos and brought back to Vancouver by a friend who went to Mytilene to assist refugees in whatever way she could. The horrendous mob lynching of wrongly accused Farkhunda Nederi in Kabul on March 19, 2015, was yet another example of extremist religious ideology and misguided leadership. The sexual enslavement, forced religious conversion and mass execution of Yazidis is another. The downing of a Russian jetliner over the Sinai Desert and latest jihadist attacks in Mali, Yola, Paris, Beirut, Ankara, Sydney, Baghdad, Chad...the list goes on and on...illustrate all too clearly that wherever we are, or for whatever reason, no one is immune. Anyone of us could end up in stormy waters with only a life vest to sustain us.

Noel Hodnett

November 2015

Review of Collateral Damage and Other Stories

An Exhibition by Noel Hodnett at hfa contemporary

Nov 19 – Dec 24, 2015

Years ago when I was engaged in postdoctoral work I remember attending a particular lecture in psychiatry. The discussion was about conducting clinical trials and what is ‘normal’. The lecturer used the example of a person in Pre-war Germany who was suspicious about the political environment and how that person might be considered atypical by today’s standards, yet their behaviour would have been very adaptive for the times if it moved them to leave the country in a timely way. She highlighted our discomfort for those whose behaviour and thinking departs from the ‘average’. This discussion would repeat itself many times throughout my work in that field. It has caused me to consider over and over again how many of the great men of our times would have initially been dismissed for thinking beyond the consensus of the day.

When I look at the body of work by Noel Hodnett, I’m reminded of these considerations. Maybe it is the years he spent in South Africa under Apartheid rule and the violence in that culture that has forever given him a keen eye for revealing the disenfranchised. Whatever the reason, his work is anything but comfortable and in the city of Vancouver, a city that can be characterized by the pursuit of greater and greater comforts, it stands apart. In my opinion he has hit another one out of the ball park with his exhibition on Collateral Damage and Other Stories. It is not for the faint of heart. It is provocative and intense and one needs to approach it with the idea that your emotions will be tested. One actually needs to see the exhibition as it is not something that can be experienced on YouTube™ or on-line. From the giant life jacket at the entrance that reflects your image as you enter to the hauntingly beautiful full wall painting of Alyan Kurdi’s older brother, Galip, washed up on the night shores with the sound track of waves in the background stops you in your tracks…you feel the loss. The Death of Farkhunda, a painting depicting her being stoned, is another rendition of the atrocities of extremist philosophy. The life-size proportions of the work once again draw you into the notion that it could be any one of us in the picture. As a fellow artist put it while recently attending his exhibition, the subject matter in the hands of someone with lesser skills may come across as sensational or crass whereas Noel Hodnett’s mastery of painting, sculpture and theatre are capable of drawing you deeply into this intense feeling of desperation. It highlights the senselessness of human lives lost. For myself, it reminds me of visiting the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC and walking home in silence afterward. That feeling of so many lives lost so many years ago, so far away and the senselessness of it all. And yet, Hodnett is highlighting an event of incredible proportions that is still unfolding. This is why it is so powerful. Testament to this is found in the pages of responses in the visitor’s book thanking him for highlighting the unspeakable.

Like the lament In Flanders Field written by John McCrae 100 years ago, Hodnett’s exhibition begs us to “Take up our quarrel with the foe, To you from failing hands we through, The torch, be yours to hold it high, If ye break faith with those who die, We shall not sleep…”. Hodnett, like McCrae, is challenging us to aspire to greatness, put aside our comfort and actively confront the next chapter in this unfolding catastrophe.

Julie Pongrac, Ph.D.

Nov 25, 2015

Review posted on Instagram © by dezoraptor

Art as social commentary; thought provoking, insightful, cutting through the rhetoric, lies and twisting of the truth, it is when art ignites one's passion to discover the truth that it is at its most powerful, as a medium that forces one out of his or her comfort zone, to engage in a discourse that enlightens and educates.

It was in this context that I was affected by Noel Hodnett's exhibition, "Collateral Damage and Other Stories", at this year's culture crawl. The focus of the exhibition on the plight of people desperately seeking safe haven from atrocities of unspeakable proportions struck home; I was very fortunate to engage with Noel in an hour long discussion about his exhibition, his views on the state of the world, his motives and inspiration behind each piece of work in his exhibition, including "Arc de Triomphe" shown here, a sculpture of a life vest meant to mimic France's grand monument to it's war dead, here symbolizing the plight of (Syrian) refugees and their connection to the recent tragic chain of events in Paris. In my humble opinion, art at its best (and most powerful).

dezoraptor

Comments from the Visitors' Book:

Our monumental Noel Hodnett - painter, angry humanist, does it again touching us with his images, vocality and well defined craft - A powerful statement burning into our eyes that dry our tears into no, no, no more violence.

Thank you for highlighting the unspoken. No article could capture what your art installation has showcased.

Thank you for your inspiring work.

Thought provoking and sensitizing to the plight of so many. Thank you for your generous spirit.

You've tackled a major tragic topic. Brave work.

Thank you for defining what art should be. To awaken enhance, inform, inspire, move and motivate.

I feel an affinity for your marks and what they try to do.

STUNNING!

Couldn't stop telling people I knew about your exhibit on war last year, and this was just as powerful! Thank you for your work.

Your art is powerful!

Well well well...I asked to be moved...some say art is the first luxury...family fed...safe in the cave...paint...paint...

Extremely intense. Congratulations!

Thank you for showing what is needed.

Excellent as always!

Dark and disturbing...and I mean that as a compliment.

Look forward to your work every year and it never disappoints!!

Woah! Thank you!

Very powerful. I feel a deep sorrow when looking at your pieces. Thank you.

Thought provoking - Very visceral.

Your work is very important. Thank you.

Thanks for making images for those things too horrible to express in words.

Thank you for reminding us of the importance of opening our borders to people who are fleeing ISIS and other issues. It is chilling to see the life vests used by actual kids and really brings the issue home.

This is incredible. The article (wall text) was so apt and I think everybody needs to see it. There should be more people like you in the world. Thank you.

Very moving work. We should all think hard on what part we have played and on some solutions.

You've tackled a major tragic topic. Brave work.

Totally Dude!