Exhibition

Mahmad Khudoiev © Photographer

WHAT REMAINS

an exhibition of photography and film by

Alison Locke and Chris Anderson

April 24th to May 31st 2008

What Remains is an exhibition of film and photography examining the impact of cluster bombs on the lives of civilians in affected countries around the world.

Cluster bombs have been used as a military weapon in at least 30 countries and territories since 1943. Dropped from aircraft or fired from the ground, cluster bombs are designed to break open in mid-air and saturate a wide area with hundreds of explosive submunitions. Some, or even all of these will fail to detonate on impact, leaving huge quantities of small deadly bombs on the ground for years.

Alison Locke and Chris Anderson have travelled to affected regions to document the harm caused to civilians by these indiscriminate weapons. With images from Lebanon, Laos, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Western Sahara, Kosovo, Nagorno Karabakh and Ethiopia, What Remains presents a moving collection of stories told by people who are witnesses to suffering through injury and loss. The exhibition uses photographs and film to give voice to their experiences, which are mirrored and repeated throughout the decades of the use of cluster bombs.

What Remains is the testament of ordinary people sucked into war and its consequences by the brutal effects of these weapons.

The exhibition coincides with a major conference hosted by the government of Ireland. The Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions will take place from 19-30 May 2008; it is a crucial conference that aims to negotiate a new instrument of international humanitarian law banning cluster munitions. See www.clustermunitionsdublin.ie/documents.asp for more information on the conference.

About the artists: Alison Locke and Chris Anderson studied post-graduate Photojournalism at London College of Printing in 1998/9. Since then  they have worked on a number of photographic documentary projects together and have exhibited their work internationally. What Remains was instigated in 2006 and is the first project in which they have used film and photography together.

Image: Mahmad Khudoiev sustained severe damage to his right leg during a cluster bomb strike launched by government forces during the civil conflict in Tajikistan in 1993. His injuries became infected and his leg was amputated in 1995. Mahmad was eventually able to return to his job as a taxi driver after adapting his car to be controlled by hand.

Link to televised review as the panel of RTÉ Television's - The View, discusses 'What Remains' at The Gallery of Photography, aired 13th May 2008. Click here...

For further information, press scans or to arrange an interview with the artists, please contact:
Tanya Kiang, Gallery of Photography 353-1-6714654, tanya@galleryofphotography.ie