Interviewed by Anne Kirker
Anne Kirker put the following questions to Ian Howard in preparation for his exhibition oneWORLD at the Queensland Art Gallery, 10 June to 9 August, 1992. He responded in writing in March, 1992, just before leaving for Vietnam on a project associated with ARX 3.
Anne Kirker Ian, without exception your work for some twenty-five years has been committed to exposing how militarism and nuclearisation of culture generally permeate our daily existence. What triggered this concern?
Ian Howard I was an art student at the National Art School (East Sydney Technical College) between 1965 and 1968. I also turned twenty in 1967 making me conscriptable for Vietnam. Then, most of Australia's contemporary art followed world trends and focussed on the end of the formalist tradition—Hard Edge, Minimalism, Colour Field, Kinetic Art, were the dominant movements of the time with only
Pop art occasionally addressing 'real world' issues (coming almost exclusively from the US, and here in Australia I think Richard Larter). So, as a student I was attempting to deal with this as well as what was going on outside the studio and the culture of artists. In art school it was the push and pull (figure/ground theory) of the red square and the green surface, and outside formal education it was moratoriums, conscientious objection and protest against the war. I did register as a conscious objector however my birth date didn't get chosen. My older brother's did and he acquired a sufficiently serious 'medical problem' to disallow him from service!
In general terms, I realised during this period that there could be an institutional apparatus running separate to what I, in a considered way, felt was right for individuals... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline