Komet was born in 1941 in Çorum. Lives and works in Istanbul and Paris.
It is a well known fact that the Industrial Age led to the universal
spread of colonialism and the rivalry between the giant industrialized
countries to share the world, thereby nationalizm defining itself in the
highest level.
This nationalistic fever conditioned societies using whatever means
available; to an extent that the intellectuals and artists of these
countries joined up to nationalist trends, even volunteered to enroll for
wars.
Many English, French, German intellectuals enrolled, willingly or not,
for the 1st World War. Some lost their lives fighting.
The image in this catalogue is a page from a children’s drawing book
I found in a flea market in Paris back in 1975. In careful observation
one can see that it is copied from a children’s book. This subject is
selected by grown ups to suggest children that wars are not deadly or
bad and but like a game.
Boys in the pond are going to Dardanelles with guns made of stove
pipes. Little girls and the boy with toy rifle on the shore call out the
them “Don’t be late to eat aunt Aurelie’s cakes for tea!”
I thought it would be interesting to see nationalism from the other side
since we are usually exposed to only our perspective.
