George Gittoes in an Era of Post-Heroic, Hyper-Real Warfare

The drawings, paintings and films of George Gittoes have been interpreted as humanistic works of art, as they emphasise the fate of those caught up in wars around the world. This essay argues that Gittoes's work is as interested in sketching a post-humanist concept of war as it does a humanist one. The concept of post-heroic and hyper-real war help think through key works from Gittoes's oevure from Nicuragua, Rwanda, Afghanistan and the US. They offer a cyborgian, mechanistic picture of soldiers who are as much victims of conflict as the populations subjected to conditions of total war that has characterised the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.