Exhibition
Emily Prince - Saatchi Gallery
Another uncompromisingly political work that refuses to go away is Emily Prince's 'American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (but not Including the Wounded, nor the Iraqis nor the Afghanis)', currently on show at the Saatchi Gallery. Making McQueen's proposition seem cold, hard and calculating by comparison, Prince's self-appointed, self-flagellating task - to draw every one of the slain combatants of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan - is a devotional and, dare I say it, feminine approach to wartime loss.
Her spidery line-drawn portraits of deceased military personnel amount to a tender labour of love: she won't stop until every last soldier has returned. So far, 5,386 haven't. Prince lovingly pins a copy of each drawing to the walls, like a note of condolence (the originals live in a card archive, alphabetised by state from Alabama to Wyoming), and indeed many include fond epitaphs, such as 'O married his childhood sweetheart…', which are at odds with the bellicose nature of their loved ones' original mission.
