Before and beyond the Cold War

Abstract

Do images always offer insights into the contexts from which they emerge, and is this always the most generative and sensitive way to approach art and visual culture emerging from Southeast Asia in the Cold War era? This essay considers these questions by examining two corpuses of images that depict the “Secret War” waged by the United States in Laos. First is a group of 28 photographs showing victims of American bombings and related scenes, which were collected by Pha Khamfan Silasangvara (1901–1987), a senior Buddhist abbot in Luang Prabang and celebrated maker and collector of photographs. Second is a series of paintings depicting Air America planes that were deployed, under orders from the US Central Intelligence Agency, for clandestine military and other purposes in Laos. These were painted by Terry Wofford (née Gilbert, 1943– ), a British-born self-described “aviation artist” who lived and worked in Vientiane from 1968 to 1972, while her US-born husband was as a pilot for Air America. This essay argues that these bodies of images must be studied not only in relation to Southeast Asia’s Cold War context but also with reference to practices that historically pre-date the conflict and geographically extend beyond the region.