Responding to a new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum exploring how children experience conflict, artist Arabella Dorman writes that children are the longest-lasting casualties of war. In a letter to the Guardian, she says that while wars are recorded through battles, borders and political decisions, children experience them through interrupted childhoods, fractured families and the loss of ordinary days.
Art as Witness
Dorman, who worked in war zones for many years, says her series Child of War grew out of encounters with children whose resilience was remarkable, but whose suffering should never be mistaken for acceptance or inevitability. She notes that art cannot change the past, but it can bear witness.
If the exhibition encourages people to look beyond headlines and recognise the human cost of conflict through the eyes of a child, she says, it will have performed a profound service.
