ABSTRACT
Terms of Engagement presents Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP) artists invested in narratives of colonialism, genocide, gender and human rights. The chapter considers a significant shift in the dynamic of sponsorship for official war artists in Canada that has altered the kind of art being made. Introduced in 2001, the CFAP continues the brief of programs to 'capture the operations, personnel and spirit of the Canadian Forces', but no longer involves a commitment to exhibit or collect. Official war art has eluded the artistic legacy of WWI precipitated by artist-soldiers' responses to the shock of industrialised warfare. Repetition and replay signal cycles of conflict and displacement through perpetual war. The arms-length relationship with artists introduced by the Canadian Forces Artists Program clearly allows for a greater degree of critical engagement and formal innovation in recording the activities of the Canadian Forces.
