military

Probably the most famous recruitment slogan of the twentieth century was the World- War-I-era slogan “I Want You.” This slogan appeared on thousands of posters featuring a stern- looking Uncle Sam pointing at the potential recruit. The US Army has utilized five recruitment slogans since turning to modern advertising campaigns in 1971. These slogans include: “ Today’s Army Wants To Join You;” “Join the People Who’ve Joined the Army;” “This Is the Army;” “Be All You Can Be;” and “An Army of One .” The most successful slogan of the recent past--“Be All You Can Be,” a slogan which practically became synonymous with the Army for 20 years--emphasizes Expectancy Theory, Self-Actualization, Growth, and Achievement.

In this series of paintings entitled 'Military Sunset' I explore the equal genre of 'recruitment' imagery. Recruitment images, like the slogans, conjure a simpler but more dynamic world filled with high-tech machinery, national duty, teamwork and foreign adventure. These are images designed to influence immature minds. Almost always at sunset or sunrise, with tiny bright details and great expanse from foreground to background, they depict a life of extreme action but also of existential calm. In the most contemporary versions, informed by computer gaming, humans and high-tech machines are joined into a sort of cyborg composite. These images belong to an old historical genre that makes use of all the tools of pictorial romanticism and nationalist realism. These images are a visual lure to escape the dull tedium of school, family obligations and habitual spaces. How many kids have been fooled by this type of propaganda image only to find themselves doing menial labor for nearly no pay in an authoritarian and unforgiving bureaucracy.