Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama is Dead and the Hand to Hand Project

Although the intent of this blog is the unfolding of a personal and artistic spiritual journey, I've been encouraged by some of the Hand to Hand collaborative artists to make an exception, and write today about the killing of Osama Bin Laden early this morning. Hand to Hand which ended last August, was a daily witnessing of the events of the War in Iraq using gloves or hands in any artistic media in response to that war's daily news events. The approximately 200 national and international artists and I followed the war day by day for 7-1/2 years.

I understand the connection between Al-Quaeda in Iraq and the Hand to Hand Project, but I did not at first see the need to respond to Bin Laden's death as a natural consequence of my following the War in Iraq. The Bush administration tried to link Saddam Hussein with Bin Laden and 9-11 to justify invading Iraq, but that theory was later debunked by the 9-11 commission.

On June 17, 2004 I created a glove artwork in response to the headline in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the Commission's finding of no evidence of a link. The only other time I responded to a news story about Bin Laden during the H2H Project was on January 20, 2006 when Bin Laden issued a video suggesting a truce and also attacks.

While following the Iraq War for so many years, I was continually disgusted by the brutalities we humans inflict upon each other in the name of ideals such as religion, and democracy, or base motives like anger and revenge. I am saddened that the USA felt it necessary to kill Osama Bin Laden, and not take him prisoner to face legal justice. The wheel turns and we perpetuate hatred in response to hatred.

4 comments:

  1. I too felt saddened, and do not know what punishment would really serve true justice regardless. The need to see real photos of his body, etc, just *really* disturbs me to the core. I'm glad you blogged about this.

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  2. I have no feelings about this man’s death,no joy no sadness ,nothing.another evil doer gone.The nationalist joy that I sense is another way of separating the them and the us and not seeing the unity of the interwoven heart Even the good and the evil are ONE.I like your last sentence.

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  3. Dear Cecelia, I appreciate your writing something here to mark this occasion of Osama Bin Laden's death. I somehow feel that Hand 2 Hand project got you to this deeply spiritual place you are now. You were the keeper of the memories of the Iraq War which the US somehow got permission to delve into because of 9/11.

    How sacred is that having been the "curator" of memories of the Iraq War?

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  4. For your trip I sought round the world for “others” and reached certainty: There are no others.
    The whole world is indivisible,the world’s harp has but a single string
    (D 34969-75) D= Diwan-I Shamsı Tabrizi
    You might want to think about an adpter to charge your computer while in the car

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