A Not So Simple Case for Torture

This structure was built to mimic a confessional.  A physical venue in which confessions, recollections of the officiator of torture and the victim appear intermittently onscreen for the viewer to witness upon entering, instead of the converse as it is normally. 

Within the confines of this private booth, the spectator is invited to quietly absorb the retrospectives offered.  For the video installation, each confessional account is differentiated by color and presented successively, showing instances that coordinate despite separate situations.  Instead of visual or audio representations, textual material is used, encouraging viewers to encounter the nightmarish descriptions by accessing their own personal references.

The installed narrative consists of excerpts from testimony given by Sergeant A, of the 82nd Airborne Division who served in Afghanistan from September 2002 to March 2003 and in Iraq from August 2003 to April 2004 and a professor of Theology, Ali Shalal, who was tortured at Abu Ghrahib Prison.

I will post the narrative soon. Meanwhile, get this book.

I have a two page spread about my project in ID 517: Special Topics in Art and Politics: A Not So Simple Case for Torture A PROJECT BY STUDENTS AT CALARTS with NANCY BUCHANAN, SAM DURANT AND MARTHA ROSLER, Published by: Onestar Press, France. 2008.