Night Vision
The Artist (1996), a large painting of a harlequin figure, greets the visitor as they enter George Gittoes’s exhibition Night Vision. Hanging in the gallery’s front window this carnivalesque figure, holding a paint brush in one hand, paints cloud-like stepping stones over a dark abyss. As he paints his own safe passage across the abyss he sports a knowing grin, baring sharp teeth. His eyes are masked by a pair of night vision glasses. Upright bullet shells create a ‘city skyline’ surrounding the abyss. Everything in this conflict zone is painted blue and yellow. The artist’s night vision glasses simultaneously act as a mask, a prosthesis, a camouflage and an example of militarised technology. The painting forewarns the visitor that this is an exhibition of many layers, where the topology of contemporary war and conflict is traversed in paintings and drawings that provoke questions. They are ‘stepping stones’ too. The artist-harlequin, an alter-ego self portrait of Gittoes, seems to say hang tight, I will show you the artist’s way into and through the horror.
Since 1985, when he visited Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution, Gittoes has worked as a painter, filmmaker and photo-journalist in numerous war and conflict zones. These include places such as Somalia, Iraq, Congo, Philippines, Gaza, Israel, Rwanda, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since 2011 he has largely been based in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Here, he has set up an artists’ community for Afghans. It is called The Yellow House, after the Sydney artists’ community he set up in the 1970s with fellow artist Martin Sharp.
Upon entering Night Vision the paintings, many large and hung closely, create an immersive environment where the concept of ‘vision’ expands into multiple