scratchboard drawings, 22.5 in. x 26 in.

Dennis Tourbin Members Gallery

Niagara Artists' Centre

May 29 - June 15, 2006

This portfolio of scratchboard drawings explores the so-called "War on Terror" through media images appropriated from the Internet. "Scratching the Surface - Media Wars" is the fifth installment and a precursor to my on-going "The New American Century Project", which investigates the New World Order's new World War, scheduled to tour in Ontario in 2007-2008.

Given the density of issues and materials, this graphic collection merely touches on the myriad of images coming out of the current conflicts in the Middle East including suicide bombers, collateral damage, torture, enemy combatants, protagonists, and the iconic nature of Vietnam's historical precedent. As much as it is the artists' protest of war, "Scratching the Surface - Media Wars" begs the viewer to reconsider our relationship to the media and the role it plays in the communication and understanding of global events.

The black and white mark-making inherently reflects primal angst in its execution, as well as lending itself to conveying the underlying contradictions and polarities that are the hallmark of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the "Coalition of the Willing" invasion of Iraq, the volatile global politics of war, and mayhem throughout the world that has lead to a gradual deepening of Canadian involvement in warfare.

The events of September 11, 2001 threw the Western world, and particularly America, into massive social shock, allowing the brokers of globalism to further their ambitions and entrench us in the mire of war. One way of countering this complicity is to look beyond the surface to unmask the filters of media.