SITUATION #207

In The Non-Logistical Mother, British documentary photographer and artist Lisa Barnard reflects on the logistical image tied to a machinic gaze – one that is formed by and tailored to male-dominated militarism and capitalism. Through a fragmentary approach that draws on various theoretical and literary references and found footage materials, the commissioned piece ponders the silencing of women in relation to the theatre of war as well as photographic forms of representation. Interspersed within this video collage we find short sequences recorded during a drone fair of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in 2013: it shows Barnard repeatedly walking through the image, occupying the militarised and male-dominated space framed and captured by the thermal imaging system. Although performative interventions form part of her artistic practice, Barnard has never included any documentation in her final works. In The Non-Logistical Mother, the subversive gesture of such an intervention becomes the starting point to question the possibilities of intervening in a field of representation and undermining both visual and social systems that render the female invisible.

More by Lisa Barnard: lisabarnard.co.uk