IRAQI MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM LECTURE

I attended the Iraqi Memorial Symposium on Thur., March 4, in the IGT Knowledge Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. The symposium consisted of several contributors to the Iraqi Memorial project talking about their proposals and their interpretations of the project. At the time, I don’t think I fully understood the concept behind the project, and thus found the symposium a bit dull.

However, after completing my own proposal for the Iraqi Memorial project, I feel as if I gained a new understanding for the concept of the project and what the speakers were trying to convey through their pieces. There is more to this project than just having people submit ideas for a memorial. It is a way for artists, designers, architects, and other interested creative individuals or collaborators to create artwork that dealt with the contemplation of loss, to honor sacrifice, to celebrate heroism and to sanctify a process of mourning that is ongoing and public.

Looking back on the symposium, I realize that the contributors who were brought to speak at our school and share with us their proposals had understood this and created works of art that they felt represented the above things in a way that best fit their views.

The visiting contributors brought with them a wide range of ideas for the project, some of which I enjoyed, and others that I don’t really feel I could grasp the meaning of. “Light Trails,” by Cat Soergel Marshall, was one of the pieces that I just couldn’t really grasp a hold of. Her proposal is a moveable memorial installed at various Iraqi locations that consist of, as far as I could tell, giant rope of light that extends through regions of Iraq. Marshall said, “The piece narrates the causality figures through distance, time, light and energy.” As I said earlier, I just couldn’t grasp a hold of this piece, but am sure it’s a superb proposal in it’s own right.

A proposal that I enjoyed was “The Killing of Lions: An Iraqi Memorial,” by Maureen Drdak. The piece draws upon the representation of lion hunts as the eloquent and ironic metaphor for the War in Iraq. The lions represent the “powerless” Iraqi civilian dead, and mineral threads express the unseen, impersonal violence, which penetrates these lion like souls. I enjoyed this piece for its simplicity and underlying meaning the most. It was uncomplicated and easy to understand, and yet, at the same time, very effective in getting it’s meaning across.

I think the symposium was a great way for the contributors to the Iraqi Memorial to share their views on the project and their proposals. After completing my proposal, I look back at the symposium with a new view of what the contributors were trying to convey and have a new respect for the ideas each of them created for the memorial.