I was the United States Representative at the Berlin War or Peace: Crossroads of History Festival, commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the end of WWI (1918 - 2018). I participated in peace and conflict discussions with a global panel of young adults age 18-30 and attended a week-long photography and documentary workshop creating work with a group of 13 other artists from around the world on the hero complex and identifying prejudices in the arts, which was archived by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb).
In an experimental role play, this workshop focused on the art shifts during World War I and the pivotal year 1918 with photographic means: Shattered perspectives and odd angles. Absurd compositions and broken harmonies. Coherent wholes transformed to disparate fragments. Geometric patterns and forms as reduction. Multilayer and early mixed media. New readings, new contents, new aesthetics…
This workshop was led by Tim Van Beveren and Susanne Junker, sponsored by research from the Necropolis Project, a multi-media research cooperation and initiative that commemorates conflicts, civil unrest, war, atrocities, destruction and death in digital collages and montages.
I was responsible for serving as Creative Director and Photographer for one photography shoot, collaborating with a small group of peers to create a photo montage series, and assisting in photographing, providing lighting, makeup/costumes, and other supports as needed for my peers in their projects.
My final images:
I collaborated with the following artists during this workshop: Alina Cebotarenco (Moldova), Amrita Dhillon (India), Eko Saptura (Indonesia), Hala Alawi (Jordan), Janne Linder (Germany), Lotte Dodion (Belgium), Luiza Katarzyna Skrzypczynska (Poland), Magdalena Lasiewicz (Poland), Noa Geras (Croatia), Ruth Jenkins (United Kingdom), Victoria Wegner (Germany), Waed Al Badour (Jordan), and Tuhafeni Nashitati (Namibia).
Here are our collaborative works:
My photo montage group created these images, using borrowed imagery from Ruth Jenkin's family photos she brought to Berlin!
