Syndromes, Digitized B&W Large format photographs, variable dimensions, 2019
Photographs above are a series of large format B&W photographs taken from hand-drawn replications of deteriorated images in a declassified CIA document relating to the Gulf Tanker War. This series is titled “Syndromes” and is a photo-based installation which seeks to analyze the intersections of postcoloniality and politics of representation concerning the Gulf Tanker War (1984-1988) by drawing upon the visual materials pertaining to this period such as archival films, declassified state documents, photographs, and news coverage. The Gulf Tanker War is a period roughly profiled between 1984-1988 in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) during which Saddam Hussein strategically attacked Iran’s oil platforms in order to impose economic pressure and hinder the flow of Iran’s oil production.
Through tracing and mapping an array of popular representations regarding the Tanker War, “Syndromes” looks at the ideological and imaginative constructs propelled and installed by the public visual cultures pertaining to this period. Often dismissed within hackneyed academic and political interests in the two Gulf Wars, the Gulf Tanker War was indicative of the psychic, geopolitical, and spatial dimensions behind “oil crises.” This project seeks to unravel the different historical allusions to material overflow which have historically operated in tandem with obstruction of oil supplies by different imperial and colonial actors. It looks at the visual residues of different oil crises which operate as the auxiliary structure upon which the fabrication of crises can be enforced.
Review of Syndromes: “Are Images Ever Innocent?” written by Tereza Rudolf, Fotograf Magazine- issue #41 Postdigital Photography, Czech, Winter 2022
Project Assistant: Mico Mazza