wendover report no. 7

THE HUE OF WAR!

usually it’s pretty quiet here on the base. with the exception of the passing trucks on their way to the potash plant or the occasional airplane landing on the runway, things are relatively quiet and peaceful. but this evening things got crazy: out of nowhere it suddenly sounded as if we were under attack. the sounds of explosions and machine-gun fire shook the unit, and it seemed like for one instance we were in really big trouble. kristin posehn (my art-residence room-mate) and i looked out the window to find the air filled with yellow and pink smoke, so we quickly grabbed our cameras and the binoculars and snuck out the back door and up into the tower.
from the tower we could see that in the empty barracks across the way a large group of people, clearly associated with the military, where involved in what looked like a giant game of war. men dressed in camouflage gear and carrying M-16 rifles where running around pretending to kill one another while colored smoke bombs filled the air like some crazy circus event. kristen and i huddled down in the tower watching and laughing, and surely breaking some patriot act law by photographing the entire thing.
i found the choice of colors particularly curious. i mean, of course pink and yellow represent some of the most primal, aggression-inducing colors out there, but in some ways it all seemed more like some bizarre fourth of july celebration than a real simulation of battle (or at least the battles i have seen in movies). (actually, perhaps that is how battles really are, and it’s the movies that have them all wrong…) PERHAPS they too were just trying to make some art. maybe they are a little jealous of us over here at the center for land use interpretation and this was there way of saying “hey, check us out, we can make cool stuff too!” i hope that is what it was.