Advocacy, Super-Sized

by Kelly Spellman · 2009-10-27 04:26:00 UTC
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is it worth if it's 7 feet tall and 10 feet wide?

The New York Times photojournalism blog, Lens recently did a feature on the project Congo/Women, a traveling exhibit created by the Art Works Projects. This exhibit, currently housed at the United Nations in New York, displays the devastating impact that decades of conflict, HIV/AIDS and rape as a war tactic have had on women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The difference is that the pictures are far from your traditional gallery size -- they are larger than life.

In the article, "Behind the Scenes: Suffering Writ Large," Leslie Thomas, the founding executive director of Art Works Projects explains that the massive images of the Congo/Women exhibit were meant to "grab the attention of those not normally concerned with human rights."

In 2006 and 2007 the Art Works Projects released another traveling multimedia exhibit called Darfur/Darfur that included huge projected photographs and music, documenting the lives of people experiencing the conflict in Darfur.  The images were digitally displayed on walls of the venue spaces.

Though I have not had the opportunity to see these exhibits in person, after going through the Lens article and the Art Works Project websites for both projects, seeing the images was both moving and haunting.  I can only imagine the effect they can have when they are wall-sized and impossible to miss.  According to Lens, one of the current Congo exhibit portraits is placed right outside of the General Assembly chamber, and I cannot think of a more appropriate place for it.

I know that the Darfur exhibit made its way to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and that the Congo exhibit was shown at Senate and House office buildings earlier this year, but a part of me wonders if maybe a semi-permanent installation should go up in the Capitol Hill area of this nation's capital -- a daily reminder to both those who work and visit that the decision we do (or do not) make have a monumental impact on the lives of individuals, families, and communities across the world.

[Photo of the Darfur/Darfur exhibit in New York by the Save Darfur Coalition, used with written permission from the organization.]

Kelly Spellman
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