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After moving a dozen boxes into my new apartment in Baltimore City this afternoon, I swung up to Hopkins to check out an exhibition about the war in Iraq on its last day here in Baltimore. In their own words, here's what the AFSC has to say about this show about deaths on both sides of the Iraq war:

The American Friends Service Committee wrote:Eyes Wide Open, the American Friends Service Committee's widely acclaimed exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq war and commemorates all the lives lost.

The exhibit includes a pair of boots honoring each U.S. military casualty; a field of shoes and a wall of remembrance to memorialize the Iraqis killed in the conflict; and a multimedia display exploring the history, cost and consequences of the war.

"Eyes Wide Open" is touring the U.S., so if this interests you, check out the schedule at their website to see if it'll be showing anywhere near you: http://www.afsc.org/eyes/


The Beach at Johns Hopkins University, where the 'Eyes Wide Open' exhibit was held. That whole wide expanse (and then some) is the collection of boots representing American soldiers who have died in the war.


As I approached, I saw the expanse of boots and shoes, with this banner as the next thing I noticed.


Pairs of shoes symbolizing Iraqi casualties.


Close-up of part of the Iraqi section of the exhibit.


Pairs of boots symbolizing American soldier casualties.


Close-up of part of the American soldier section of the exhibit.


Table for the boots, photographs and awards of the Maryland soldiers who have been killed in Iraq.




As I was wandering through the exhibit, names of the dead were being read, with the gong being sounded after each one.

... My god...
I never kept up with the death toll...
That is depressing...

Ach, they stole their name from Frederic Raphael's memoir of Stanley Kubrick...

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Ach, they stole their name from Frederic Raphael's memoir of Stanley Kubrick...

What a tragedy.

Well, seriously not that it's a big deal. It was just honestly the first thing that entered my mind.

Gee, silly me, thinking that someone else had posted on the actual topic of the thread!

*sighs*

Okay, looking through the images, I actually do have an on-topic comment.

Were the various flags, pictures, etc... part of the exhibit? If they were placed there by visitors, then I have to admit, no matter how unpopular of a stance this may be, that I have some pretty big reservations concerning individuals appropreating an exhibit as a memorial. Purely from an emotionally neutral, academic stance, I feel that they kind of taint the representational aspect of the exhibit.

Mind that I completely understand why people put those things there. I just don't think that it was appropriate place to do so.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Okay, looking through the images, I actually do have an on-topic comment.

Hey, thanks.

Were the various flags, pictures, etc... part of the exhibit? If they were placed there by visitors, then I have to admit, no matter how unpopular of a stance this may be, that I have some pretty big reservations concerning individuals appropreating an exhibit as a memorial. Purely from an emotionally neutral, academic stance, I feel that they kind of taint the representational aspect of the exhibit.

From what I could see judging from the amount of stuff on the table of Maryland soldiers, the soldiers' families were consulted and gave permission to laminate photos, documents, awards, etc. to travel with the shoes as part of the exhibit. So, it was part-memorial, part-exhibit. Somewhere inbetween.

Okay. That does indeed change things quite a bit. Thanks for the info.

Hmm... this is something I have to see. I'm going to have to make a time work to see it, but I'm definately going to see it.

I'm suddenly very sad I missed this. It looks like probably the second best testimony to the war I could find (mostly because I still think Section 60 at Arlington is simply more powerful in its simplicity but it is also an exclusively American military show there). Z you need to tell us marylanders when you find things like this so we can see them as well.