DUOArticulate
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Manager Gallery Services
Shane Fitzgerald
Image 1 George GITTOES Salvage 1990–92 oil on canvas 170 x 250 cm
TOWNSVILLE CITY COUNCIL
Life’s Harshest Lessons
As DUO Magazine explores the many facets and intricacies of education and training, I thought it fitting to speak to lessons that can’t be taught in a classroom or by a training provider. Call them life’s lessons – ones that must be experienced and reflected upon, not simply studied and absorbed.
MANY of these lessons we all experience throughout our respective journeys. There are some lessons however, some of the harshest conceivable lessons about the nature of humanity, that are only experienced by a few among us, and only when confronted by extreme brutality. And so we have the work of renowned Australian artist, photographer, film (and peace) maker, George Gittoes, who has consistently placed himself in the middle of the world’s most horrific conflicts and atrocities over the course of his five decade career. Fortunately for us, Gittoes shares his lessons through his art, and Townsville is privileged to be able to experience the world
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through the artist’s eyes when viewing the 45 year survey exhibition, I Witness, at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in March. I Witness reveals a remarkable body of work developed from Gittoes’ mobile studio of camera, video and richly illustrated diaries that document the sites of cultural conflict including Nicaragua and the Philippines in 1980s, Rwanda, Cambodia and the Middle East in 1990s, and more recently in Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. George Gittoes: I Witness explores the capacity of figurative art to address issues of an ethical, if not spiritual, nature where the question of being human is starkly framed in the context of war and terrorism. Gittoes’ images are stark, confronting, demanding and illuminating as they appeal to the viewer’s capacity for compassion and justice. Even without having seen the events first hand, Gittoes’ works have the capacity to haunt viewers. Such is the case with Salvage (1990-92), painted from his trip to Nicaragua and the Philippines and depicting a mutilated corpse, tied up like a cut of roast and left in the streets as a graphic warning to the rebellious sugar industry workers. Or images from his Rwanda tour in 1995, at a time when soldiers massacred over 4000 people in the most brutal fashion with guns and machetes. From all Gittoes has seen he has learnt about the best and worst of our species. His gripping, often confronting, insights into the depths of our darkest potential provide us with a confronting opportunity to strive
Image 2 George GITTOES Last Act 2013 ink and digital print on paper 68.5 x 56 cm
Image 3 George GITTOES Super Power – New York – Baghdad 2004 oil on canvas 212 x 292 cm
to be better; to fill our world with love and beauty. Indeed, while travelling to some of the most dangerous and violent locations on Earth, George has always maintained his ability to find beauty and friendship. Though he detests war, he has waged his own on war itself through his confronting artworks. He has taught and encouraged countless artists, directly through his Yellow House project and mentoring, and indirectly by acting as a source of inspiration, to create something beautiful and to challenge the world to be better. While he does not share his experiences and lessons through his art with us for any recognition, it is fitting that George Gittoes AM was selected to receive the 2015 Sydney Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts in exposing injustice for over 45 years as a humanist artist, activist and filmmaker, for his courage to witness and confront violence in the war zones of the world, for enlisting the arts to subdue aggression and for enlivening the creative spirit to promote tolerance, respect and peace with justice. I was honoured to have been able to attend the ceremony at which George received his 2015 Sydney Peace Prize, and am even more honoured to be able to call him a friend from whom I have learnt much about a world that is alien to me. I strongly encourage the Townsville community to also learn from the artist’s incredible life by viewing I Witness, and to adopt his vision for a more peaceful world.