Join us via Zoom for a free virtual talk with artist, anti-war activist, and Iraq War veteran Aaron Hughes.
Please register in advance to receive the Zoom link.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Aaron Hughes is an artist, curator, organizer, teacher, anti-war activist, and Iraq War veteran. Working through an interdisciplinary practice rooted in drawing and printmaking, Hughes works collaboratively to create meaning out of personal and collective trauma, transform systems of oppression, and seek liberation. He develops projects that often utilize popular research strategies, experiments with forms of direct democracy, and operates in solidarity with the people most impacted by structural violence. Hughes works with a range of art and activist groups, including Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, About Face: Veterans Against the War, emerging Veteran Art Movement, and Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Co-presented by IARP and the Rochester Art Center, Poetry Despite/Music Despite (Eternal War Requiem) connects artists across time and place, from World War I to the “Global War on Terror,” from the US to Iraq. In this exhibition, conceived and organized by Iraq war veteran and artist Aaron Hughes, music, poetry, and large-scale prints come together to facilitate connections between the current state of endless war and its historical antecedents. These connections acknowledge the recurring traumas of war and, conversely, the human connections that happen despite the pain.
The project emerged out of Hughes’ personal reflections on Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, the nine poems by World War I poet Wilfred Owen featured in the War Requiem, and maestro Karim Wasfi’s “spontaneous compositions,” solo cello performances held at sites of bombings in Iraq.
The exhibition features nine large-scale woodblock prints by Hughes that respond to Owen’s nine poems in the War Requiem while exploring current issues, including state-sanctioned extrajudicial killing, torture and detention, the refugee crisis, the rise of extremism, and the failure of states.
The project also reimagines each of Owen’s poems through the work of hip-hop artists and poets, including Iraqi American writer Dunya Mikhail. Recordings of these works, alongside maestro Wasfi's compositions, are woven together on a double vinyl record. Visitors are invited to listen on a record player located in the gallery as they experience the exhibition.
Learn more and plan your visit today: rochesterartcenter.org/event/poetry-despite-music-despite
Thank you to our funders!
Funding has been provided to the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project from the Minnesota Humanities Center through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021.
NEH is committed to Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP). Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This activity is also made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
A special thank you to Schmitt Music for their generous support of these events.