Choreographies of Calamity: Art Hazelwood and the Media of War @ SMCMoA

Choreographies of Calamities: Art Hazelwood and the Media of War features 17 prints created by San Francisco-based artist and activist Art Hazelwood (b. 1961) primarily in response to the Iraq War in the early 2000s. This exhibition examines the intersections of militarism, media sensationalism, and political propaganda, inviting viewers to consider how war is represented, justified, and consumed in the United States. 

Produced across four printmaking processes—engraving, etching, linocut, and screenprinting—Hazelwood draws on the democratic history of printmaking as a means of challenging dominant narratives surrounding war and engaging broad audiences. His practice combines meticulous detail with satire and grotesque imagery to examine the political rhetoric and systems of power that shape public perceptions of conflict. 

“The minuteness, obsessiveness required were the perfect match for my wish to focus anger at details of this monumentally hubristic war.”

—Art Hazelwood

Central to the exhibition are ten engravings from Hubris Corpulentus, a series responding to the Iraq War. As Hazelwood explains, “The minuteness, obsessiveness required were the perfect match for my wish to focus anger at details of this monumentally hubristic war.”

Choreographies of Calamities invites viewers to reflect on how images influence our understanding of conflict and how artists can use visual culture to question systems of power. More than two decades after many of these works were created, Hazelwood’s prints continue to resonate amid ongoing warfare and the evolving ways audiences encounter news and representations of violence.