In her series of pastel drawings, Vivian Bower responds to the genocide that took place in Rwanda
during 1994 and 1995 when 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsis were brutally massacred by Hutu friends,
family, and colleagues. Turning to her work as the only action she could take, she created drawings
using Xerox images of victims and borrowing language from the media's description of the
genocide.
Images were created using texture and mark that both obscure and reveal these images just as the
bodies were buried and later exposed. Bower drew featureless heads floating in a space to represent
the dehumanization of these acts of violence.
This work is personal, not political. Bower’s intention is to confront the truth and to express her
pain and horror. Perhaps this work will encourage viewers to reflect on and recognize that the
words "never again," spoken after the Holocaust or the Armenian genocide or other mass murders,
must begin to resonate in our consciousness.
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