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During the Vietnam War, the United States used an estimated twelve million gallons of the herbicide Agent Orange to defoliate the landscape and contaminate food sources. Agent Orange contains high levels of dioxin, a carcinogenic and mutagenic chemical that has continued to alter the minds and bodies of generations of Vietnamese people. The work of Keisha Luce focuses on members of the second and third generations of victims.
Using life-molding techniques, I created sculptures during a three- month trip to Vietnam to document visually and physically the long-term consequences of chemical warfare. My activity as a documentary sculptor emerged from my own narrative as the daughter of a disabled Vietnam veteran, who died at the age of thirty-eight of an Agent Orange-related cancer. I see this work as a call to action and believe that art can effectively contribute to the discourse on war and conflict…. This work is dedicated to the millions of victims and their families living with the effects of Agent Orange.
~ Keisha Luce
A number of her sculptures were on display during the Odysseus Project Art Exhibit: The Hidden Costs of War in 2010. Learn more about the work of Keisha Luce on Sum & Parts: Documentary Sculpture and through this interview on New Hampshire Public Radio: Sculpting Agent Orange’s Legacy.
If you want to know more about the ongoing health and environmental impacts of the use of Agent Orange go to Agent Orange Record a website by the War Legacies Project in Vermont.
Interview with Hassan Juma’a, President, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, and Falah Alwan, President, Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq.
Click to watch
Juma’a and Alwan talk about the labor movement in Iraq, and their individual work with Iraqi unions. They go on to talk about what Americans need to understand about the situation in Iraq. Finally they describe some of their personal experiences of the US military operations there. The interview took place during Iraqi Labor Tour: Unplugged, September 19th 2009 – an event sponsored by US Labor Against the War, Iraq Veterans Against the War, New York University Law Students for Human Rights Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, New York University Middle Eastern Law Students Association and United for Peace and Justice.
Last month I had the unusual opportunity to interview two Iraqi labor leaders, who were in the United States to attend the AFL/CIO convention. This interview came about because the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston put Krzysztof Wodizcko in touch with me, as he was preparing the Veterans Project, commissioned by the ICA. I assumed Krzysztof was interested in having me help him get in touch with veterans I knew from the Odysseus Project. But instead Krzysztof asked me if I knew any Iraqis. Other than one person – I didn’t, but I offered to contact some people I knew had worked with Iraqis and Afghans for their art and film projects. Around that time, I got an email from Aaron Hughes, an artist in the Odysseus Project exhibition and IVAW member, who was helping to organize the tour of Iraqi labor leaders with US Labor Against the War. They were looking for volunteers and I offered to help out if they could use me. I told Aaron about Krysztof’s project, and asked him if he thought the Iraqis would mind talking to me about some of their experiences. He graciously arranged time for an interview in NY, so I headed down to meet them.
I was unsure whether these Iraqi labor leaders would want to talk to me about an art project, but they were very generous and shared stories about their work with unions, as well as personal experiences of the war in Iraq. Apologies for the poor quality. I was especially reminded of the importance of hearing directly about the situation in Iraq when reading an article in last week’s New Yorker: “You can fight someone you don’t know, but you can’t make peace with him.” – Omar Shaban, quoted in Letter from Gaza, Captives (Lawrence Wright, the New Yorker, November 9, 2009).
{I will share my notes from this interview soon. I also want to add that this is part of the inspiration for a possible new direction for the Odysseus Project: an art exhibit and cultural exchange with Iraqi and Afghan artists – both civilians living within those countries, and from the Diasporas.}
At recording booths across America, everyday people interview one another about their lives. StoryCorps creator Dave Isay showcases these first-person stories in a weekly podcast. StoryCorps airs Fridays on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Two of the more recent stories are about soldiers who fought in Iraq:
Historians Against the War published a 24-page pamphlet entitled Join Us? Testimonies of Iraq War Veterans and Their Families. The pamphlet, a project of HAW’s Oral History Working Group, includes testimony from six veterans of the Iraq war, from the mother of a National Guard soldier who died in Iraq and from Army veteran Ann Wright, who resigned from the State Department to protest the Iraq invasion. You can download the complete pamphlet here: http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/resources.
Artvoice has published an article with excerpts from the testimonies of the six veterans. The pages are illustrated with work by artist and Iraq veteran Aaron Hughes.
The book, What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It by Trish Wood, gives people an insight into how the war affects many American Soldiers. According to a review by Austin Considine, the book paints a vivid image in the reader’s mind. Each of the soldiers is able to “guide the reader through the streets of Baghdad, Fallujah and Najaf via his or her unique voice.” By reading these stories, people are able to see beyond the iconic front of soldiers. They discover human beings sharing some of their most personal life stories.
