Bugsplat

Bugsplat (Pint Sized Terrorist)

16″ x 20″ | Oil on board | CAD $480.00

‘Bug-splat’ is an official US Defence Department term for ‘civilian hits’ in an airstrike or drone strike. It is also the name of Defence Department drone software for calculating and reducing collateral damage (dead civilians) resulting from airstrikes. The grainy image of people being killed on a drone video screen gives the impression of an insect being crushed.

This is yet another term that encourages the separation which serves to desensitize the taking of a human life. Appallingly so, another term used by the military to describe hits on children is ‘pint-sized terrorists’.

I began painting a grieving Palestinian father and his young son when the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip were at their peak in 2014. It became too difficult to finish at the time, so I laid it aside. When my awareness of the situation in Syria increased early in 2016 I felt compelled to complete ‘Bugsplat’.