MARK WILLIAMS ARTIST STATEMENT

Since the start of the United States military presence in Iraq, I have been making artwork based on the inexpensive, small, plastic toy soldiers that so many young children have played with for generations. The type of toy soldiers I am using are suggested for ages three and up and are sold in bags of about 40 pieces in various poses selling for $2.00. The subject is important to me because I want to work with imagery that is understood by as many people as possible as well as to create images that many people can relate to. The fact that these particular toys are so inexpensive means that they can be (and have been) purchased by people of nearly every economic level. As an American, I believe that the time is right to be making artwork that has a reference to my country’s involvement in a very controversial war. I further believe that it is important to do so.

The fact that there are toys of men holding guns, toys about war, about death, and murder for children at an early age interests me immensely. Plastic toy figures of men with guns and other weapons are depictions of a danger of the external world. To give a child of three years old these toy soldiers is to introduce them to a concept that is very unfortunate and gruesome. War is a fact of life, and I believe these toys glorify it. To give a child these toys sends the message that war is not a bad thing. To introduce the concept of war to children in the form of a toy or game is to introduce them to it as perhaps . . . something fun, something to aspire to do in real life when they grow up. It is at this young age that so many ideas are formed.

My photographs of toy soldiers have Play-Doh compound in various shapes, molds, and designs attached to them to give them a playful as well as pathetic look. Often I photograph these objects while the Play-Doh is fresh, since when it dries out it then cracks and loses its vibrant color. This freshness I view as more relevant to my idea because it is viewed as contemporary. On the other hand, the brittle, cracked forms would suggest something old and on the brink of being forgotten.

Wars have been fought for thousands of years and have caused the deaths of millions of people, disrupting families and leaving children without parents. On some level, the iconic poses of these toy soldiers may have been embedded into our subconscious. Before there were guns in the hands of those fighting, there were swords, spears, bow and arrows, clubs, etc. These toys could be seen as visual archetypal forms or primordial images of fighting men. The toys are in fighting poses and appear victorious. There are not toys of this plastic variety that come injured, dead, missing body parts, or begging for mercy. Only the clean, healthy side of war is sold and marketed. If these toys could be seen as archetypal forms then my action of obscuring them with Play-Doh could be an attempt to suppress them, to put an end to them.

In all of my photographs, the Play-Doh forms are more brightly colored than the soldiers and attract the viewer’s attention more. It is this gesture that I want to be the focal point. Inevitably wars will continue to happen and this gesture is a symbolic, personal attempt to put an end to it. These soldiers then function as a symbol or totem for war in general and by placing silly, childlike forms on them the idea of war is under attack. By doing this with children’s toys, it makes the gesture with irrational innocence of a child who is completely unaware of politics and history. Whereas the child sees in black and white, clearly war is wrong and should be stopped. The child may ask, “Why would people kill each other and have wars?” The parent then may respond, “Um, well…I don’t know. It’s complicated. Maybe someday you’ll understand”. Then often, to quote the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, “someday never comes” and the child grows into an adult and never understands war.

Mark Williams, 2003