The Iraq War Paintings: Gina Sinozich — 11 September to 5 October 2003

Curator: Peter Fay

Kon Gouriotis, director Casula Powerhouse, Liverpool, opened the exhibition and the new project space.

Gina Sinozich’s paintings respond to daily media coverage of the American invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The images reflect her concerns about suffering as spectacle, the catastrophic impact of war on innocent people and her family’s torment during the Second World War.

The Iraq War paintings were made in diary format to cover the events of the war from day to day. Gina Sinozich would be up and working very early each morning using the latest TV news, CNN and Cable Vision to watch the progress of fighting, all the while making notes, recording her reaction to events unfolding in real time on her TV screen. With the arrival of the morning papers she would search for images to add to her image bank. She let nothing come between her and her task of capturing in painting the excess and brutality of all wars. She had first hand experience of war as a girl of twelve in Croatia in 1940 seeing Yugoslavian partisans shot by Nazi invaders.

Gina Sinozich began painting in 2001 when she picked up a sign left by a council worker. She seized on paint as a way of documenting for her children her early life and experience as a refugee in post-World War II. This series documents her early life in Croatia and her refugee story. It finishes with her émigré life in Sydney’s outlying southwest suburbs in 1957 running a market garden with her husband until retiring. Curator Peter Fay first saw Gina Sinozich’s self-taught paintings in the Liverpool City Art Prize at Casula Powerhouse (after a tip-off by judge and artist Cherry Hood.)

This powerful and topical history series was the opening exhibition for The Cross Art Projects and the artist’s second solo exhibition. The Iraqi War series, comprising over 25 works, is now in the collection of the Casula Power House Museum.

Publication

Gina Sinozich, The Iraqi War, 2003. Illustrated colour catalogue with essays by Peter Fay and Lisa Havilah. Available at Cross Art + Books: enquiries@crossbooks.com.au

Gina Sinozich, United States Welcome to Nasarijah, 2003

Gina Sinozich, 2003

Gina Sinozich, The Saving of Jessica Lynch, 2003

Gina Sinozich, Four Different Faces of Saddam Hussein (March 29, March 26, 2 April, 3 April), 2003

Gina Sinozich and Lisa Havalah, curator Casula Powerhouse (on left).