Proxy (28 Sapper Ave.)

In the Proxy series, scenes of destruction are presented along quotidian vignettes of American life; families carry on, oblivious to their surroundings, while soldiers crawl through the wreckage of houses and backyards, suggesting the aftermath of some military event. This series was started in the early 2010s, when the United States had been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly a decade. I was struck by how life went on as usual in the US; unless you were a servicemember or knew one, it was like it wasn’t happening at all. (Conversely, of course, people in Iraq and Afghanistan did not have the option of ignoring the war.) The Proxy series was my way of thinking through the physical and psychological damage that is often done to service members alongside a willfully ignorant populace. By superimposing ahistorical soldiers over the day-to-day concerns of home, I attempted to create scenes that could hopefully transcend history and nationality to explore the freight of war’s psychological debris.