STATEMENT

“AMERICAN DREAM, This is not a dream” is a timeless piece, as the issues it raises are not new, but fundamental and embedded in the history of all civilizations. Power and war are universal and, unfortunately, too often misused. This piece is dedicated to all the soldiers and veterans that care about making the world a safer place. Thank you. Peace.

INTRODUCTION 

When I created this piece, the Iraq war was turning from bad to much worse. Already into year three of struggling to keep the situation under control, the Bush administration was still asserting that things were going in the right direction.

Internally, the relationship between the soldiers and the American leaders was deteriorating at a fast pace due to the misrepresentation of this war and the unexpected difficulties encountered with both the logistics, and the militias, on the ground and the lack of assistance when back home. It was not until 2007, when the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal broke out, that this major issue was clearly talked about in the news.

The media ban placed in the early 1990s during the first Gulf war was reinforced worldwide again in 2003 by the Bush administration because of the deep divisions within the American public on the war in Iraq. Once again, the population was held back from knowing the truth about the war and the fate of its soldiers. The people were not well-informed and did not realize that, even if equipped with the best technologies, their young were dying in great numbers. Paradoxically, what proliferated at home, were the advertising campaigns to motivate young people to enroll in the army. These propagandist campaigns were running in magazines, newspapers, on TV, at movie theaters, in the streets…everywhere. Their goal was to attract new recruits, using social benefits as bait, while intentionally omitting to depict what would likely be the real price to pay.

In a country where the Dream Concept is very important, these “attractive” campaigns were the perfect way to legitimatize the war and give hope to young people that they too could be elevated to the rank of national heroes. Until the Obama administration withdrew the media ban in 2009, we never saw any wounded, dead soldiers or coffins coming back home, and the causality counts remained a blur.

While on tour of duty, some of the soldiers became skeptical about the true reasons why they were there. They developed into victims of a system that created them. Systems that mislead them and that didn’t really provide them with the expected technical and psychological support while abroad. Once back in their homeland, it was difficult for them to get the necessary medical/psychiatric treatment, or financial support, to resume a normal life and overcome PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).

These facts were very upsetting and triggered an urge inside me to create this piece as early as 2006. It led me to translate my emotions visually and to explore not only the concepts of patriotism, war, authority, abuse, propaganda, freedom, hope, dreams and death. I also asked the inexhaustible question, “How do things appear to be and what are they in reality?”

To achieve this undertaking, I decided to base my piece around the American military recruiting campaigns and utilize two important elements: symbolism (mainly represented here with the use of the blindfolds) and the complex and interesting theory of “The Treachery of Images”, significantly explored by René Magritte in the iconic painting, CECI N’EST PAS UNE PIPE.