"Oh, Yeah!": This Guy's Good

While the drawings and imagery seem child-like, 

the installation and design of artist Chris Dacre's exhibit, 

"Oh, Yeah!" at the Gallery of the Herron School of Art 

is sophisticated and dramatic.

To me, it is less about war than it is about, 

as the artist states in his remarks about this work, 

how our society, particularly men, 

are conditioned by the near-continuous

onslaught of movies, video games, books, 

and advertising glorifying war, 

inuring us to its murderous reality.

The drawings have a perspective that seems

like those of a child's version of planes.

The kites are printed with profiles of bombers

and fighters, sweeping across the sky.

There's a campground of small tents, backed

by battleground videos. At the other end of

the gallery, a boy's bedroom is shown, his little jammies,

printed with angry-faced men brandishing bayonets, 

lie on bed sheets printed with images of HumVees.

The nightmare is coming through the boy's wall, 

a tank ready to run through and over

everything and everyone. At the window, fatigue-clad 

"soldiers" have cartoon animal heads, but are 

carrying weapons. They are strung like marionettes

so that, no matter who you decide the enemy might be,

you know that both sides are being controlled by

outside interests that have nothing to do

with religion, moral or ethical concepts, or even politics -

just by the desire by someone to have absolute 

control over every one and every coin ever minted.

Like the artist, I am not so naive to believe that war 

will ever be abolished. People will never just 

kiss and make up to live in a Utopia of candy and kindness.

However, we do need to be able to discern between 

a war that's being run for the benefit of arms dealers 

and manufacturers, and religious nuts proselytzing their

particular brand of hatred and bigotry.

Yep, I am a confirmed gatherer of nut and berries,

but there surely has to be a better way

for our men to confirm their masculinity than

by shooting some poor fuck who's been

turned into a convenient caricature of evil.