(Un)Masked: Hans Haacke

Han's Haacke's 2004 photograph Star Gazing emerged during a period of political conflict and social unrest. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the war America waged in the Middle East prompted unjust violence against innocent victims in order to reaffirm authority. With heightened censorship imposed upon war-related broadcasting, images from America's war on terror became more powerful, revealing, and influential on public perceptions of our affairs abroad--ultimately exposing a failing democratic at home. One of the most influential of these images was a photograph of a hooded man, visually resembling Christ on a cross, taken from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in 2004.  Haacke's response to this image illuminates a larger cultural response to this event, extending beyond critical aesthetics of the art world. Haacke's photograph frames his male subject, torso up, in a plain dark t-shirt slouched over wearing a hood made from the starred section of the American flag completely covering his face. This photograph confronts the viewer with sentiments of sadness and empathy, simultaneously. There is an apparent conflict of patriotism felt by America collectively, one straddling the desire to defend and support our country while simultaneously realizing the country's unapologetic brutality. This photograph highlights this personal conflict and exposes its underlying message probing at the personal desire to mask oneself in a patriotic façade to conceal visceral reactions to such an unsettling reality.

Hans Haacke, Star Gazing, 2004

(Un)Masked introductory text: http://artscurated.blogspot.com/2012/04/unmasked.html