Requiem (Inscribing the Names: American Soldiers Killed in Iraq), 2003-2011
Paper, ink, plumb bobs, cord
Dimensions variable
Collection of the artist

In her ongoing efforts to record and remember American soldiers killed in war, Harriet Bart turned to the solitary act of writing. Over the course of U.S. military interventions in Iraq, she wrote on long, vertical scrolls of paper the names of the more than four thousand American soldiers killed.

In the final installation seven scrolls hang from the ceiling, extend down a wall, and spill onto the floor. Six of the seven scrolls are filled with names in Bart’s neat cursive script; the seventh scroll has been left blank, representing those killed whose names are not known.

Metal plumb bobs attached to filament hover just above the floor in front of each scroll, calling attention to that place where the true vertical reaches its horizontal destination—and where standing bodies fall.

Publications:

  • Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection, Laura Wertheim Joseph editor and curator, Weisman Art Museum, 2020

  • Between Echo and Silence, essay by Joanna Inglot, Law Warschaw Gallery  Macalester College, 2012

Exhibitions: