Goldsworthy, R: Consuming//terror

"CONSUMING//TERROR: Images of the Baader-Meinhof" an "urban guerilla cell" active in West Germany in the 1970s-80s, traces the visual history of the Red Army Faction (RAF) and its relations both to the history of Left-wing iconography and the genre of radical chic. The study concentrates on the era when terrorism first entered the Western news media through spectacular bombings, hijackings, and assassinations. Located on the frontlines of the Cold War, the story of the RAF provides an excellent lens with which to study the visual component of terror. Since that time, due to a confluence of forces, public conceptions of the RAF have shifted in significant ways, images which first emerged in the news media during that wave of terror are processed and reframed through recycling in cinema, historical studies, pop culture and fine art. The study explores the way in which the RAF,like Che, has seeped into popular culture, fashion, and high art, moving through contexts where they become floating signifiers for rebellion without clear political or historical referent.