Popular Culture Review Vol. 18, No. 1, Winter 2007 | Page 65

Broken Bodies, Disruptured Landscapes: Landmines as Bio-Power in Afghanistan and Cambodia In this paper I will examine the relationship between Foucault’s concept of bio-power and the human suffering caused by landmines in Afghanistan and Cambodia as depicted by paintings from the Australian artist George Gittoes. I first discuss aspects of George Gittoes’ ‘Minefields’ series and his artistic approach, and then provide a theoretical framework for exploring landmines as bio-power. Jackson’s notion of the metaphor of the body as a metaphor of the land, and Foucault’s concept of bio-power are examined in relation to landmines. Both concepts provide a relevant backdrop for exploring the correspondence between self and place, and technology’s remapping of the body as a ‘decorporealised’ object. Afghanistan and Cambodia are specifically examined as arenas of bio-power. 1 use George Gittoes’ paintings as trajectories for exploring the tie between body and land in both geographical contexts. Suffering, horror, excess, ambiguity, and hope pervade the works of contemporary Australian artist George Gittoes. Flis symbolic interplay of these various themes within his artistic compositions encapsulate the Chimeric nature of modernity. Elaborating on Foucault’s concept of ‘bio-power’, I critically explore “human violation” via Gittoes’ artistic series of paintings and drawings entitled ‘Minefields’.' The works which I have chosen to analyse are indicative of Gittoes’ treatment of the human body as a site for exploring human rights abuse and the excesses of modernity. ‘Minefields’ addresses the human and environmental consequences of landmines, by enabling the victims of landmines to narrate their own experiences; in this series censureship is denied: the various images disclo