War Models

March 8 - April 15, 2006

Reception: Wednesday, March 8, 6 - 8

War Models

William Laven:  War Models

March 8 - April 15

  

 
Press Release

 
 
 
Foley Gallery is pleased to announce War Models, an exhibition of new photographs by San Francisco based artist William Laven.  These delicately printed black and white photographs examine the unassembled details of model airplane kits of aircraft flown in the current Iraqi war.

 
 
 
Forty aircraft types have been flown in Operation Iraqi Freedom. This includes 30 types of airplanes -- fighters, troop transporters, aerial tankers, and reconnaissance planes -- eight types of helicopters and two kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), one armed with missiles, the other with cameras.

 
 
 
Of the forty aircraft flown, model kits are made of twenty-one. The prints are scaled in proportion to the actual aircraft: each image is 1/50 the size of the actual aircraft. The AV-8 Harrier, for example, is small enough that two could squeeze into a typical Brooklyn brownstone lot, while two B-52 Stratofortress bombers would overcrowd a football field. The AV-8 weighs 14,000 pounds: the B-52 carries five times that weight in bombs alone.  The print size of the AV-8 will measure 39 x 28 inches while the B-52 will be printed as a diptych, each panel being 50 x 60 inches.

 
 
 
These images of children's toys touch on the American fascination with symbols of power and acknowledge the complex relationship to the destructive power of the actual aircraft.  The tones of these prints shine metallic. The glistening surface reveals both their beauty and their danger.

 
 
 
William Laven received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991. He has exhibited in group shows at the Oakland Art Gallery, Gallery 16 in San Francisco and the Center for Creative Photography at Woodstock, NY.  War Models marks his first solo exhibition in New York.

 
 
 
Foley Gallery is open Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 6pm.  For more information or for images, please contact the gallery by phone or e-mail.  Photographs from the exhibition are available to view on the website in the Artists section.


Gallery Hours:Tuesday - Saturday, 11 - 6