thedrifter
10-26-07, 12:46 PM
Tattoos Tell a Moving Tale in The Soldiers Skin Exhibition
By Candyce Columbus
Arcadia Weekly, CA
http://www.coremg.net/newspapers/pictures/tatoo%20Photog%20copy.jpg
Photographer Mary Beth Heffernans digital images of tattoos on the skin of young Marines shows how each memorialized comrades they lost in the war. Photo by Terry Miller
Im interested in creating work that haunts people, explains Mary Beth Heffernan. I want to move them to contemplation or empathy with something that isnt easily assimilated and continue to think about what they have seen down the line. My goal is to raise questions, not provide answers.
Heffernans striking digital images comprise The Soldiers Skin: An Endless Edition exhibition, Pasadena City Colleges contribution to the Art Councils citywide Skin/Art Festival. Not a typical art installation, this exhibit has but one framed image on the wall. The rest of the presentation is made up of stacks of photolithographic posters, posters of fresh tattoos on the skin of young Marines. But these arent typical tattoos. They are personal memorials to fallen comrades, lost in the Iraq war.
I chose to directly address the idea of the soldiers body as a site of mourning and record how the Marines were memorializing each other. Heffernan says she is interested in the intersection between nationality, mourning, and the brotherly bond.
From February through May 2006, she took her digital camera to the tattoo parlors adjacent to the largest Marine base in the U.S., the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Californias Mojave Desert. The images had to be taken on the fly. Because of the transient nature of their jobs, they could be deployed on short notice.
Intentionally laid out as if they could be stone block memorials, the posters are available for visitors to take home. The poster is like the skin itself. They can peel off one or more to take with them. As a result, the shape of the exhibition is likely to change radically. The endless supply of posters has been designed to last throughout the exhibition.
Most of the memorials were etched onto the backs and arms of the soldiers. Several designs cover entire arms. One image depicts a representation of Marines placing the U.S. flag into the ground. The white ink used so irritated the soldiers skin that it made his skin bleed. A teardrop of that blood was captured in the image as it rolled down his skin.
Perhaps the most moving poster is of the back of a Marine who received the Purple Heart for an injury during his first tour of duty. He was back from his second tour of duty during which 10 of his comrades were killed. Remnants of shrapnel wounds are visible next to the permanently inked names of his fallen friends.
The Soldiers Skin exhibition will be on display through Nov. 17. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. PCC will also feature 18 exhibits, lectures, and discussions as part of the Pasadena Skin/Art Festival. All events are featured online at www.pasadena.edu/artnight.
For more information, call (626) 585-7238.
Ellie
By Candyce Columbus
Arcadia Weekly, CA
http://www.coremg.net/newspapers/pictures/tatoo%20Photog%20copy.jpg
Photographer Mary Beth Heffernans digital images of tattoos on the skin of young Marines shows how each memorialized comrades they lost in the war. Photo by Terry Miller
Im interested in creating work that haunts people, explains Mary Beth Heffernan. I want to move them to contemplation or empathy with something that isnt easily assimilated and continue to think about what they have seen down the line. My goal is to raise questions, not provide answers.
Heffernans striking digital images comprise The Soldiers Skin: An Endless Edition exhibition, Pasadena City Colleges contribution to the Art Councils citywide Skin/Art Festival. Not a typical art installation, this exhibit has but one framed image on the wall. The rest of the presentation is made up of stacks of photolithographic posters, posters of fresh tattoos on the skin of young Marines. But these arent typical tattoos. They are personal memorials to fallen comrades, lost in the Iraq war.
I chose to directly address the idea of the soldiers body as a site of mourning and record how the Marines were memorializing each other. Heffernan says she is interested in the intersection between nationality, mourning, and the brotherly bond.
From February through May 2006, she took her digital camera to the tattoo parlors adjacent to the largest Marine base in the U.S., the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Californias Mojave Desert. The images had to be taken on the fly. Because of the transient nature of their jobs, they could be deployed on short notice.
Intentionally laid out as if they could be stone block memorials, the posters are available for visitors to take home. The poster is like the skin itself. They can peel off one or more to take with them. As a result, the shape of the exhibition is likely to change radically. The endless supply of posters has been designed to last throughout the exhibition.
Most of the memorials were etched onto the backs and arms of the soldiers. Several designs cover entire arms. One image depicts a representation of Marines placing the U.S. flag into the ground. The white ink used so irritated the soldiers skin that it made his skin bleed. A teardrop of that blood was captured in the image as it rolled down his skin.
Perhaps the most moving poster is of the back of a Marine who received the Purple Heart for an injury during his first tour of duty. He was back from his second tour of duty during which 10 of his comrades were killed. Remnants of shrapnel wounds are visible next to the permanently inked names of his fallen friends.
The Soldiers Skin exhibition will be on display through Nov. 17. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. PCC will also feature 18 exhibits, lectures, and discussions as part of the Pasadena Skin/Art Festival. All events are featured online at www.pasadena.edu/artnight.
For more information, call (626) 585-7238.
Ellie