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This art project focuses in a voyeuristic way on the fatality and futility of war. With its accompanying emotional responses; the aim is to reflect on these issues through a cyclical process of construction and destruction. The motivation for this research is to generate a personal and intimate understanding of the experience of war by exploring notions of helplessness and loss through art making processes. The research presumes war exists as a continuous fatal and futile cycle. Within this investigation fatality is defined as accepting the conditions of death, dying and disaster while also alluding to the philosophical concept of fate: futility is defined as pointless, hopeless or useless. Through methods of construction and destruction this project seeks to initiate alternate ways of emotionally processing, responding to, and understanding the experiences of war from a distance.

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Laurie Steer is a renowned contemporary artist based in Mt. Maunganui, New Zealand. The recipient of numerous awards, scholarships and degrees his work is held in collections internationally. Steer is currently Co ordinator of Art and Research Leader at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

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