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INTRODUCTION TO A WORK IN PROGRESS THE WAR ROOM….you can't look away. (Site will be updated regularly - visit Gallery One, Gallery Two and News pages for new art, project development and progress reports.) Warning: some of the images on this site are disturbing, but much less disturbing than actual war. Welcome to The War Room Project. This is the website for an anti-war art installation by William T. Ayton. The installation is to made up of four wall-sized panels (exact dimensions TBD) depicting fundamental aspects of war: warriors, victims, witnesses, and aftermath. Initial studies for the images exist as pencil sketches on paper, along with some more detailed sketches and other related works. The sketches for the panels can be seen on "the room" page; as the work continues to be developed it will be posted on this site . Currently, several possible venues for the installation are being considered, as well as possible exhibitions of The War Room prototype and related art. The Exhibition schedule will be posted as itinerary is confirmed. Meanwhile, initial studies and related art has been shown at the "War and Peace: Artists' Voices" Exhibition at Gallery 218 in Milwaukie, WI. and at the "Art of War" online gallery at www.wnyc.com. On The War Room Project site, "gallery one, related works" contains recent works by Ayton on a similar theme with references and echos to The War Room panels in obvious or oblique ways. "gallery two, precursor works" contains images of Ayton's art from previous years dealing with related topics: human rights, Hiroshima, war and peace. In this context, The War Room is a logical extension of themes the artist has dealt with on a recurring basis. ARTIST'S STATEMENT When the tapestry of Picasso's Guernica was covered up for a Colin Powell speech at the U.N. (February 2003), I knew I had to do something. The War Room project is my response. The project is intended as a thoughtful & meditative consideration of the subject of war. After millennia of human existence, it seems we can't get past the urge to solve our problems by wantonly destroying each other. This to me, far from being a noble achievement of humankind, conversely shows us to be little more than savages, despite whatever technological, medical, philosophical, artistic and other "advances" we have made. At our root, we still revel in killing one another and wrecking our fragile planet in the process. That's simply not good enough, and it has to stop. Peace, William T. Ayton, 2003
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