Gas Mask 2

Depicts an Alsatian dog wearing a gas mask. The dog sits passively, an expression of both resignation and loyalty evident in its pose and its eyes. As the Spanish artist Goya's etching focused on the brutality, humiliation and degradation of humanity during war, so too Auricchio's watercolour of the dog interprets human participation in war through the deliberate involvement of animals. Through her images she questions man's quest for power through war and the fate of animals used in this pursuit. Dogs were the most versatile of all animals used in war. They have been used for a variety of purposes including fighting, logistics, communication , as mascosts, for detection and tracking, as guard dogs and for explosives detection. Due to the important role dogs played during WWI and WWII, many countries successfully developed animal gas masks. This is one of the works included in the artist's exhibition, 'Absurdities of War', illuminating the absurdities surrounding man's use of animals throughout the history of warfare.