So It Goes

This group of stelae – grave markers – pays homage to the hundreds of thousands of victims of religious/cultural persecution.  The four markers represent Yazidis, Kurds, Syrians, and Coptic Christians.  I originally began this project in 2018, when the Syrian civil war was raging, Christian churches in Cairo were being bombed, and both the Kurd and Yazidi communities were nearly exterminated by radical Islamic sects, and even the governments of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey.  The recent disastrous US abandonment of the citizens of Afghanistan brought the project back into focus, and spurred me to finish.

Using iconography and designs from each culture’s traditional folklore and religion, I have attempted, in my small way, to recognize the innocent lives lost to ignorance, intolerance, and the thirst for power.  I do not assume that I have the knowledge nor the expertise to create art from images that may be considered sacred or personal to any group of people, but throughout my research for this project, I discovered  moving tales and beautiful symbols.  I include these tales and symbols here as a way of honoring the families and communities destroyed, and the lives lost.

The title So It Goes is a quote from the anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut.  Throughout the book, the narrator repeats these words whenever there is a death.  A fatalistic reaction to witnessing death on a large scale.