Ian Howards’ work focuses on the relationship between civilians and military, and the borders and landscapes these conflicts take place in. He considers his work akin to landscape painting. His subjects are not conventional rural or urban scenes, but rather the sensational landscapes of the world at risk.
During the war in South East Asia, the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marines used F4 Phantom fighter-bombers in Vietnam. The Air Force alone deployed 350 at the height of operations, loosing 458 aircraft in combat over the period: 1962-1973. Howards’ latest exhibition looks at how such a real and thunderous landscape might be respectfully represented now, the aircraft and pilots, the Vietnamese people, 40 years after the end of the war.
Watters Gallery
21 October to 7 November, 2015
Sydney
Vietnam’s Phantoms, 2015, mixed media, 38 x 50cm
Courtesy the artist and Watters Gallery, Sydney
