David spent time in Afghanistan, commissioned by a well-known charity and supported by the Imperial War Museum. The product of his commission is now in the Blavatnik Galleries of the Imperial War Museum - three large photographs of wounded troops being evacuated in transport planes.

 

An important feature of David’s visit, to a war zone, was the risk assessment undertaken before and during his time there, the constraints placed on him (and on others with a duty to look after him) as a result of that assessment, and the effect of those constraints on his ability to engage, and empathise with, the peoples who lived beyond the confines of the military premises in which David found himself.

 

In short, his vision, his “peripheral vision”, was frequently physically constrained by the concrete, armoured or camouflaged protections around him (see sketch to the right). That in turn had, he found, a disturbing and limiting impact on his ability to engage emotionally (and empathetically) with, in particular, the Afghan civilian population living outside his imposed field of vision. He drew therefore an interesting and profound connection between risk and empathy – intensely relevant to a war zone, the constrained manner in which wars are conducted, and the corresponding challenges of reaching a peaceful end to fighting once risk-required barriers have been erected.

 

I discussed artistic agency with David – the right of any artist to engage with a topic (such as a current but remote war) within an artistic framework. I am looking, as part of my own practice, both at the concept of agency but also at the barriers or limitations which come with it. David’s thoughts on risk, the constraints not only on agency but on an artist’s ability to engage empathetically with those living in the wider conflict zone, has given me a interesting insight into an extended and evolved thought process deeply relevant to what currently concerns me as an artist.