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No Place Called Home …This wasn’t supposed to be a love story - A New Play with Music, Written and Performed By Kim Schultz
Read more about the artists and their work here: http://iraqivoices.intersectionsinternational.org/the-art/
Have a look at our online art gallery by clicking on the image above. In this curated exhibition of art on the experience of returning home from war and on war itself, by veteran, soldier and civilian artists, you’ll find artwork by more than 30 artists.
In a new, projection-based work for the ICA, Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko will focus on veterans engaged in active 
combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as citizens of those countries, looking at their shared experience of the chaos and confusion war brings. Wodiczko’s politically-charged works explore the relationship between art, democracy, trauma and healing. The Veterans Project is on view at the ICA Boston from Nov. 4, 2009 until March 28, 2010.
In a related program Nov. 11 at 6:30 PM, Krzysztof Wodiczko engages in conversation with veterans. To create his new video installation for the ICA, Wodiczko consulted with veterans of active duty in Iraq as well as with Iraqi civilians. Director of Programs David Henry will moderate a discussion between the artist and project participants about their experience working on The Veterans Project as well as the relationship between art and conflict. See the ICA website for ticket information.
In the following video, Krzysztof Wodiczko discusses a different work on the same theme: Veterans’ Flame. It was a public video projection presented in Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York as part of PLOT/09: This World and Nearer Ones, organized by Creative Time.
In Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Veterans’ Flame, the image of a candle flame moves with the recorded voices of veterans sharing accounts of war and its aftermath in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wodiczko conducted the interviews in April 2009, interested in having his subjects explore, through the act of remembering and retelling, the complex psychological space between the battlefield and their homes. By appropriating public buildings and monuments as surfaces for projections in his work, Wodiczko has focused on the ways in which architecture reflects collective memory, history, and the loss of life. Fort Jay’s silent chambers were once again filled with the voices of soldiers, and a monument to history’s conflicts became a place to contemplate contemporary accounts of war and longing.
For more information, multimedia and other links about Krzysztof Wodiczko go to the website of the PBS series Art:21.
Read a review about The Veterans Project in The Boston Globe.
Drew Cameron of Combat Paper pointed me to this site and collection of works. Peace Soldier developed a pilot project with Nicole DiDio and The New School / Parsons. The animations below resulted from this collaboration. The About page explains: Whynotpeace is an initiative developed by the üba foundation, combining the voices of those closest to war, the creative works of talented artists, and ubiquitous communication / distribution channels to catalyze a renewed public interest and engagement in peace and human security… Whynotpeace does not attempt to provide answers to questions which are inherently complex, but rather presents a series of perspectives to be considered as we shape our individual opinions and collective actions today and in the years to come.
Final – Living Without Nikki – Kinetic Typography; poem by Drew Cameron, animation by Alec Donovan
Why Not Peace / A Different Type of Fight – excerpts from interviews with peace soldiers Logan and Eddie, animation by Alec Donovan
The Warrior Writers Project brings together recent veterans and current service members to be in creative community and utilize art-making processes to express themselves.
“…Through writing/artistic workshops that are based on experiences in the military and Iraq, the veterans unbury their secrets and connect with each other on a personal and artistic level. The writing from the workshops is compiled into books, performances and exhibits that provide a lens into the hearts of people who have a deep and intimate relationship with the Iraq war. It gives the veterans a sense of ownership over their stories and strength in their voice, perspective and power. It is through these workshops and sharing that the reconciliation process can strengthen and continue.”
- Lovella Calicia, Iraq Veterans Against the War
The website presents the powerful art and creative writing from Warrior Writing Project workshops and performances, as well as information on events, art exhibits, performances, workshops, Warrior Writers books, contact information, ways to get involved, and ways to support the project.
Follow the Warrior Writers Blog here.
Apocalypse Still is the creation of Boston artist Shaun Maclean Marrow. The painting is over a 100 meters long, pictorially embodying Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 cinema classic Apocalypse Now.
Shaun Maclean Marrow:
The world seems to be involuting upon itself in crisis. Apocalypse Now was Francis Ford Coppola’s utilization of Hollywood as a platform to show ‘the horror, the horror’ of war and the emotional toll of inner demons created by the powers that be. Apocalypse Still is a 100m (or more) painting of his movie, it uses installation to support its ‘horrors’, and movement to speak the words a painting cannot. It is already being painted, the idea of painting a film (time) is something that is warned against in the world of paint.
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- 50 some odd feet.
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- Sketch, Dinner for the colonel. Ink.
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- Detail of Sketch. Ink, gouache.
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- Sketch, study of the “Deadly Dance” scene in “Apocalypse Now”. Ink.
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- Detail of Sketch. Ink, gouache.
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- Sketch. Studying Kurtz. Ink, charcoal.
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- Sketch, closeups, and whiskey glass study. Ink.
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- Frost on the painting in the morning.
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- The first 5 feet.
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- Frost on painting (detail).
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- Frost on painting (detail).
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- Frost on painting (detail).
Critique by Ariel Radock: …Systematically offering numerous parallels within our own society, Mr. MacLean Marrow provides us with an insight into his own voracious appetite in representing a subject that transcends time and human complexity. Apocalypse Still is an outward manifestation of our innermost torments. Willingly, or perhaps in some cases unwillingly, we are forced to confront abhorrent horrors and are simultaneously repulsed and drawn to numerous attributes within this project. We are thus presented with a masterful rendition not only of a turbulent emotional journey but also a haunting visual one as well.
Hearts of Darkness: A Painter’s Apocalypse is a short documentary chronicling the development of the art installation Apocalypse Still.
See more recent work by Shaun Maclean Marrow on his blog.
Sara Nessons documentary Iraq Paper Scissors tells the story of veterans involved in the Combat Paper Project. Filming began at the Green Door Studio in Vermont where founders Drew Matott and Iraq Veteran Drew Cameron conceived the Combat Paper Project. In the spirit of community outside the military culture, veterans are cutting, beating and pulping their uniforms worn in combat into paper, books and art. Filmmaker Sara Nesson follows the veterans on a transformative journey as they confront their emotional wounds and redefine themselves as artists and writers. The film is currently in post-production and will be finished in 2010, here’s a clip:
Sara Nesson has been her own dp, editor, producer and director while making Iraq Paper Scissors. She has edited Stolen Childhoods, a prizewinning feature documentary on child labor for PBS, and edited on films for HBO such as Born into Brothels and Plastic Disaster. Last year she filmed Pilgrimage Thru Kham, which follows an expedition of health care workers throughout the forbidding Tibetan countryside to bring health care to nomadic Tibetans. Iraq Paper Scissors is Sara’s first independent film. Sara currently lives in Burlington, Vermont.
Veteran artist Aaron Hughes had 3 videos on display during The Odysseus Project art exhibit. You can read more about Aaron Hughes and watch Drawing for Peace in this earlier blogpost. The videos Ahmed and Mohammed grew out of relationships that Aaron Hughes developed with Iraqi children brought to New York for medical and prosthetic services through the Global Medical Relief Fund.
Ahmed Jabar Shareef is my friend and my guardian angel.
The children lining the roads of Iraq begging for food filled me with guilt, cynicism and anger.
Yet Ahmed who has been raped by this war (raped of his youth, raped of his body, raped of his sight, raped of his home, raped of his freedom) has no cynicism in his thoughts.
He gives love and trust without fear.
He grabs my hand and yells, “Run. Run please? Please, run.”
He is a nine-year-old boy who wants to run.
He is a nine-year-old boy who can’t run without someone to lead him. To stop him before the curb, before the tree, before the car that he cannot see.
He is a nine-year-old boy who wants to stomp his feet and twist to pop music.
He is a nine-year-old boy that teaches himself to play piano.
He is a nine-year-old boy that is a bird who knows no barbed wire.
He is a nine-year-old boy that is my guardian angel constantly reminding me that life is for love and trust, not cynicism and anger.
Ahmed Jabar Shareef is my friend.
Our art exhibition has been extended until July 25th. Come visit us at:
Art@12, 12 Farnsworth Street, Boston MA, 02210. M-F: 11-6, S: 11-4.
ReconnectUs.org is an ad hoc group of artists and presenters who have been separately involved in 
shows and events across Southern New England. Last year they came together to organize a multi-media art exhibition called Experiencing the War in Iraq. According to the website, the aim of the art exhibit is “to give a human face to the complex conflict in Iraq through the experiences of individuals”. The exhibit included work from soldiers and civilians from all over the world. The types of art work submitted are divers: video, audio, photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and the written word. For more information, visit ReconnectUs.org.
