Airplanes are always girls

WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Courtney Glenn Chappell (Creator)
Institution
Western Carolina University (WCU )
Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
Advisor
Marya Roland

Abstract: My work arises from the process of extracting content from real events. I reassemble this content and transform it into the components comprising my installation, entitled I Can See Your House From Up Here. The subject for my thesis is centered on a continuing atrocity that occurs beyond my immediate proximity, specifically the American invasion of Iraq beginning in 1990 during the Persian Gulf War. My experience of the war is mediated and incomplete; it is constructed from partial narratives and a distorted picture of ostensibly real events. I am removed from this atrocity as a result of geographical distance and political circumstance. Using the imagery from magazines, newspapers, internet search engines, propaganda material, military documents, surveillance footage, and published satellite imagery of the surface of Iraq, I attempt to reconstruct yet another incomplete narrative of imagined events in an attempt to explore social constructs relating to gender militarization. My personal experiences relating to oppressive and uncontrollable events are manifested in the form of an installation. I Can See Your House From Up Here was composed using a variety of salvaged materials including paper, wire, and cardboard.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2011
Keywords
art, installation, Iraq war, Joseph Beuys, Lynda Benglis
Subjects
Installations (Art)
War in art

Email this document to