A Mock Cavalry Battle

In Heinkuhn OH’s work, we confront the subtle expressions of anxiousness in the faces of soldiers, which can be traced back to the legacy of trauma from the colonial era and decades of rule by military regimes. However, the photographs do not show any direct acts of violence. Rather, they represent the collective trauma of soldiers who grapple with the premonition of violence. Crucially, the series also presents unexpected kinds of ambiguous anxieties, induced by conflicts arising from the shifting condition of the military culture, wherein blind loyalty to national security coexists with the secular values of youthful soldiers.—From In the Midst of Shifting Anxieties, written by Young Min Moon