Defense Language

The photographs in Defense Language show costumed role-players, elaborate Hollywood-inspired sets and staged tableaus on military bases across the United States. Artist Claire Beckett embedded herself on these bases between 2006 and 2023 to explore the depiction of Arabs and Muslims during counterinsurgency training for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.'With this project I look at the way Americans such as myself interact with other cultures. The photographs draw attention to the problematic depiction of 'cultural others' in these trainings, challenging the implicit assumption of American cultural superiority.' Those portrayed in the photographs include military personnel--often combat veterans playing the role of enemy combatants--immigrants from Iraq or Afghanistan intended to make the training look and feel realistic, and local American civilians hired to populate the artificial villages. The photographs include a combination of formal portraits, landscapes depicting makeshift constructed buildings, and more informal images of the figures interacting within the training scenarios.; The photographs were made at Fort Drum, New York; Fort Irwin, California; Fort Jackson, South Carolina; Fort Polk, Louisiana; The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (Twentynine Palms), California; and The Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, California.