Diane Victor (b. 1964, Witbank, South Africa)

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.

The fish swimming in this pool are blissfully unaware of the automatic rifles aimed down at them. Victor is riffing on the saying “shooting fish in a barrel” - meaning something that is very easy to do. The print is clearly a metaphor for how vulnerable we are to violence, and how it affects us indiscriminately.

READ MORE ABOUT THE BACKGROUND…

In Victor’s Disasters of Peace series, the etchings are based on violence reported in the South African 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.