Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Iowa Makes the Drone Victims Visible in September and October

In a series of exhibitions across the state in September and October, Iowa will be putting the devastation brought about by drones in Afghanistan in front of the public through the murals of Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan, a project of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).


The exhibition is a traveling mural exhibit that "makes a powerful statement on a nearly invisible reality." The exhibit consists of more than 45 large scale paintings by artists from all over the country that memorialize Afghan civilian casualties. The exhibit also includes images collected from Afghan high school students by Dr. Zahir Wahab, a professor at Lewis and Clark College, who asked young Afghans to draw images from their daily reality.

The exhibition has been seen throughout the country, most recently in Dayton, OH. (See how the Windows and Mirrors exhibition has helped inspire "No Drones!" activism in Ohio.)

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE: WINDOWS AND MIRRORS IN IOWA

Coralville - September 1 - 30, 2012

Simpson College - October 1 - 13, 2012

Des Moines - October 14 - 20, 2012

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Image: Collateral Damage by Lillian Moats (Chicago, IL). Lillian Moats has written, "In this painting, we see through a gun sight that a village has been targeted. The close-up of a young girl from the village, seated quietly beside a window reminds us of the humanity behind casualty figures. If we are to end wars, we can’t allow ourselves to see violence as a remote abstraction."