ABSTRACT (or read my Artist’s Statement)

In this article I share my experience of using William Blake’s 1793 poem America a Prophecy as a lens to explore the mythic, subconscious and literary constructions of military interventions in the Indo-Pacific for my painting Australia a Prophecy. For this painting I invited Blake’s 18th century character Orc to travel forward in time to Australia to guide an alternative imaginary lens, rather than the conventional political, military or international intervention analysis that is currently shaping the region where I live. Along the way Blake’s poem also inspired insights into the complex emotions and desires which seem to be driving the masculine messianic archetypal thinking of new global conflicts.

Using poetry and literature has been part of my visual art practice throughout my 36-year artistic practice. I have not followed a formal or academic artistic pathway. Instead, I have chosen an experimental and experiential journey of self-learning by collaborating with artists and researchers on topics as I strive to understand the human condition. In my search to identify the hidden narratives that underpin our political and military decisions I have used various metaphors including Broadway and Hollywood musicals, medieval French epic poetry and literary and religious texts. I hope the story behind my painting will help to stimulate conversations between experts from completely different backgrounds to explore the hidden narratives that drive our political and military decisions.

Acknowledgements

My deepest thanks to my editors Dr Victoria Basham in the UK and her production editor Rajesh in India for their valuable comments in the editing process as we all recover from the pandemic. I painted some words from the award winning American poet A.Van Jordan on this canvas and thank Aaron for his kind encouragement. Thanks to my colleagues Irene Bouzo and John Perica always for your honest feedback and kindness. Critical Military Studies select articles from their large contributions for print editions, and if it goes into one of those I will update this page.

This is my 2nd painting published by Routledge after my book cover for Kyle Grayson’s 2017 book The Cultural Politics of Targeted Killing. You can read about my 2012 work with UK researchers at The Centre for International Intervention [cii], School of Politics, University of Surrey, UK, 12-13 July 2012 LINK.