Rwanda
Hard to summarize the horrific events that occurred in 1994 Rwanda. Rwanda suffered through a terrible genocide of Rwanda's Tutsis by the Hutu militia. Teachers in our Illustration department at Parsons has organized an event that will auction off student's work to help raise money for an orphanage in Rwanda whose orphans were affected because of the genocide. We had a very special meeting with a video of the orphanage where it featured an interview with one of the caretakers. At the meeting, we also had a guest speaker who was a survivor of the genocide.
In my project, I was most inspired by what the caretaker said about the children. He said that he knows that these children still have nightmares about the genocide. They do not say anything, but he knows that they are still sick in their mind because of the events. My heart goes to those children and with those words in mind, I made a healing mask. The following are the preliminary artworks with my mask.
These are all self portraits that have been transfered by matte medium onto watercolor paper. I wanted to convey feelings of fear/uncertainty, mourning/sadness, incompleteness, but with some hope. On the mask it features a basket weaves symbol of peace. These are just my test runs, I have new photographs used with an African model, which I will post about when finished.
In my project, I was most inspired by what the caretaker said about the children. He said that he knows that these children still have nightmares about the genocide. They do not say anything, but he knows that they are still sick in their mind because of the events. My heart goes to those children and with those words in mind, I made a healing mask. The following are the preliminary artworks with my mask.
These are all self portraits that have been transfered by matte medium onto watercolor paper. I wanted to convey feelings of fear/uncertainty, mourning/sadness, incompleteness, but with some hope. On the mask it features a basket weaves symbol of peace. These are just my test runs, I have new photographs used with an African model, which I will post about when finished.