Friendly Fire (2024)
Black ash, poplar, milk paint, cherry pits, sewing pins, assorted veneer
16” W x 16” H x 3” D
Inquire
Through a porthole, two players collide. Is that friend or foe? Was that a firework or a missile? Does it matter who holds the gun if you still get shot?
In response to the assasination of its major general Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s military retaliated by shooting missiles at Ain al-Asad, a U.S. airbase in Iraq. 109 U.S service members suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of the strike.¹
Donald Trump originially reported that “no Americans were harmed in [the] attack.” Following updated injury reports from the Defense Department, Trump commented that some U.S. personnel “had headaches and a couple of other things, but [...] it is not very serious."
More than 300 former NFL players have been posthumously diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease known as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).² Until an official acknowledgement in 2016, the NFL’s language surrounding the controversy was similarly obtuse.
Friendly Fire commemorates the “collateral damage” in two of the United States’ most beloved pastimes: war and American Football.
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¹ Chappel, Bill. “109 U.S. Troops Suffered Brain Injuries In Iran Strike, Pentagon Says,” NPR News, Feburary 2020.
² Sullivan, Becky. “A third of former NFL players surveyed believe they have CTE, researchers find,” NPR News, September 2024.