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About Words For Peace
Collaborative installation by Thomas Ingmire, Betsy Raymond and Kazumi Atsuta.
In March of this year, dismayed by both the imminent war in Iraq and ongoing
U.S. defiance of the global community, Thomas Ingmire invited approximately
eighty friends and colleagues to participate in a collective calligraphic
project on the subjects of war, fear, and peace. Each person was asked to
write out a statement on a 5" x 20" sheet of paper and send it to Thomas,
who would then arrange these pieces into a work that would be shown as part
of the Friends of Calligraphy exhibit, Kalligraphia X, at the San Francisco
Public Library. Thomas also requested that the participants invite their
friends, families, and colleagues to contribute statements; children, in
particular, were encouraged to take part. To date, more than 750 people
from twenty-eight nations have responded. This installation - Words For Peace - is
the result.
With the invitations issued and pieces arriving daily in the mail, Thomas set about
exploring various formats he might use as the unifying structure for the project.
It soon became clear that creating a work whose "whole was greater than the sum
of its parts" was going to be a challenge. Meanwhile, something unexpected was
happening: Thomas began to realize that the participants' statements were raising
questions for him which often felt as provocative as the statements themselves.
One such question was if a war is already in progress - or, in the case of Iraq, about
to begin - then no matter how eloquent or heartfelt the protests against that war, do
they come too late? A war does not simply start on one day and stop on another; its
roots run wide and deep. If we truly want peace, Thomas reasoned, we must do more
than protest against war at the eleventh hour. Instead, our day-to-day lives must
reflect that desire. Thus the question "how do we achieve peace?" became for
Thomas the more encompassing question "how are we to live - as individuals, as nations,
as fellow inhabitants of the Earth?" and from that one question, not surprisingly,
sprang many others.
Thomas decided to incorporate these questions into the work with the hope that
they would prove thought provoking and even, perhaps, inspirational. Ultimately,
he chose lanterns to serve as the structural heart of a sizeable installation. The
lantern - a symbol not only of the desire to bring light into a world which seems so
increasingly dark but also of the challenge which faces us to become more enlightened
in and about the world-was a perfect choice.
Words For Peace is an ongoing project to which you are encouraged to submit a statement.
Questions
HOW CAN ONE PERSON KILL ANOTHER PERSON? COULD YOU?
CAN THE WAR BE OVER IF PEOPLE ARE STILL DYING AND BEING KILLED?
DOES THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE SERVE ANY PURPOSE?
WHY AREN'T WE FIGHTING FOR OUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS?
WHERE ARE THE VOICES OF REASON?
WHY ARE WE SO CERTAIN THAT GOD IS ON OUR SIDE?
"THOU SHALT NOT KILL." SO HOW CAN WARS BE WAGED IN GOD'S NAME?
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS? THEN WHERE ARE THE FACES OF THE CHILDREN THAT WE KILL?
HOW ARE WE TO LIVE? WHY WON'T WE AGREE ON A MORAL CODE?
HOW DO YOU LEARN TO TRUST THOSE YOU FEAR?
WHY DO WE DERIDE PEACE-LOVING PEOPLE?
WHEN DO PATRIOTISM AND DEMOCRACY WORK TOGETHER?
HOW COULD WE HAVE LET GEORGE W. BUSH BECOME PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?
DO YOU VOTE? IN EVERY ELECTION?
ARE HUMAN BEINGS AN EVOLUTIONARY MISTAKE?
DO YOU OPPOSE WAR? WHY?
WHO IS GOD ANYWAY? AND WHY ARE THERE SO MANY OF THEM?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "FREEDOM"?
IS FREEDOM WORTH ANY PRICE?
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? IS IT FEAR? IS IT GREED? IS IT SOMETHING ELSE?
CAN ARROGANCE AND STUPIDITY BE MISTAKEN ONE FOR THE OTHER?
DOES LOVE BREED LOVE?
PEACE? IN A WORLD WHERE SO MANY PEOPLE ARE RUDE AND SELFISH?
WHY DON'T GROWN-UPS FOLLOW THE GOLDEN RULE?
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