Diane Victor (b. 1964, Witbank)

Disasters of Peace #26: Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel

2006 - 2008, etching and aquatint, 30 x 35cm.

Photo by Diane Victor. Courtesy of the artist. ©Diane Victor.

In Victor’s Disasters of Peace series, she created etchings based on violence from the news. The title of the series is a satirical nod to Goya’s Disasters of War series. After the explosive, public displays of violence during apartheid, South Africans’ ideas of violence have moved from the political to the personal. Our homes are no longer safe, and government institutions do little to keep us safe. We read about terrible things happening to vulnerable people, but there is little we can do about it, so we turn our faces away. Victor forces us to confront the violence in our society. In this artwork, we see fish swimming in a pool or a dam. Above them, however, perch automatic rifles aimed down to shoot at them indiscriminately. The rifles appear to be rigged to shoot without anyone controlling them. The saying “shooting fish in a barrel” refers to something that is very easy to do - the fish are unable to swim away, so it’s easy to shoot them. Victor is using symbols and metaphor to portray how vulnerable we are to violence, and how it affects us indiscriminately.