Art Exhibit - Faces of the Fallen

I have just been looking at the site - http://facesofthefallen.org. This is the online version of the much-talked-about art exhibit that opened on 22 March 2005 at the Women's Memorial in Washington, D.C., and is expected to continue until 11 November 2005.

As explained on the website, Faces of the Fallen is an art exhibit (and not a political statement) in tribute to America's war dead - the blurb reads 'Faces of the Fallen honors America's service men and women who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. The exhibit utilizes the power of art to recognize, with gratitude and respect, their sacrifice and the sacrifice of their families.'

There are approximately 1327 individual portraits of military personnel who died before November, 11, 2004, and, if they can raise more funds (the present event cost more than $130,000 in addition to voluntary contributions of labor and materials), the organizers hope to soon include portraits of those that have died after that date and also to take the exhibition around the country.

The paintings, each 6-by-8 inches, are mounted on plain steel rods of varying heights, arranged chronologically in half-circle, and bear individual name-plates with the soldier's name, hometown, and date of death.

The portraits are the works of more than 200 artists, who used for reference newspaper photos, Internet photos, and some sent by families of the dead, and worked in various media and styles. Most of the artists are donating their artworks to the family concerned and claim to have had a profoundly moving experience working on this project.

Many family members echoed similar sentiments while viewing the exhibit, although there were some that were a little skeptical about the abstract interpretations of their loved ones. Others, a bit more knowledgeable on art, have noticed that many of the works while high on noble sentiments are a tad low on talent and quality. But since great art was not the main criterion in the first place, that is to be expected and allowed.

"As you view the image of your loved one, please bear in mind that each artist's hand and way of seeing is different from another's, just as each of our fingerprints are unique," Annette Polan, the event's creator, said in the web-site note to the families. "All the artists have worked respectfully and from their hearts."

Annette Polan, a Portrait Painter and Art Professor at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, is one of the duo - the other lady being the event managing director, Anne Murphy, a long-time Advocate for Art Organizations - that brought the Faces of the Fallen Project into fruition. With the help, of course, of the participating artists and art-students, the many volunteers and donors, and CORE architecture + design, an award-winning Washington firm that donated its services and designed the exhibition.

Ms. Polan, after seeing photographs of the dead appear in the national newspapers with an unfortunate regularity, decided that they needed a more fitting memorial and came up with the idea of painting their portraits in tribute.

She explains, "A portrait is really a way of reaching out to the future, to say this person was here, he mattered, someone cared about him."

She wanted to show that every death is an individual, each with their own hopes and dreams and memories.

She hopes it can have the same healing effect as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.

A nice sentiment and no doubt it will give some consolation to the bereaved families, but let's not be swept away either by it or the tireless saber-rattling by the likes of General Richard B. Myers who made the opening speech and chose even on this sad occasion to inform the gathering, "We won't fail."

Polan wanted this exhibit to be 'apolitical', but given who she invited and what she exhibited, that is not possible - it is politics, and a very vicious brand of politics too, that made the exhibition possible in the first place.

So, in viewing the art-works, let's not lose sight of certain pertinent facts.

It was a war that need not have taken place at all - it was based on lies and fabrications and new ones are being invented daily.

The deaths of these personnel were not heroic and honorable, but senseless and unnecessary.

They did not die 'defending the USA', but attacking other countries that posed no threat to Homeland Security.

The death toll is now past 1600 and rising, and the number of the injured, the maimed, and the psychologically traumatized is even higher.

It is an insult to speak of 'showing respect' for 'the service men and women who have given their lives in the war'. Real respect would have allowed them to live out their natural life spans.

There is an inherent contradiction in statements like 'I support the service men and women, but oppose the war'. The war is happening because the service men and women were sent over there and are still over there.

It is an odd thing to memorialize with art the members of an Armed Force that has been responsible for the destruction of the Baghdad Museum - and a veritable treasure-trove too it was of priceless art.

It is a curious thing too to leave off even mentioning the worst tragedy of this war upon Iraq and Afghanistan.

When you mourn your dead, think also of the over 100,000 Iraqi and Afghan civilians that have died since the hostilities broke out.

Their deaths were not commemorated with a sentimental portrait gallery, but with comments like 'Things happen' and 'Collateral Damage'.