Here Starts the Tragedy

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, in graphite, lower right margin: D[illegible] 2006; numbered, in graphite, lower left margin: 19/30; titled and inscribed, in block, upper center to right: HERE STARTS THE TRAGEDY. THE INVESTIGATOR TOOK / MY HEAD TO THE GROUND AND SAID THIS IS ABU GHRAIB / AND THE BEATINGS STARTED THEY BEAT ME AND I FELL / DOWN AND THE TRANSLATOR WOULD YELL AT ME TO GET / UP I AM VERY DEPRESSED EVER SINCE I LEFT / AFTER THE BEATINGS I HAVE MEMORY PROBLEMS / I WAS MADE TO KNEAL [sic] AND KEEP MY HANDS UP AND / THEY BEAT ME LIKE THAT AND It WAS SO COLD AND I / HAVE PROBLEMS FROM THAT; inscribed, in block, left: JAS. t.h. NINE MONTHS ABU GHRAIB WHY WERE YOU THERE? I DON'T KNOW I WAS NEVER ACCUSED / At 1:30 AM HE HEARD HELICOPTERS NEAR THE HOUSE IN SPEAKERS HEARD- GET OUT OF THE HOUSE- WE ARE / GOING TO BOMB THE HOUSE I CARRIED ONE CHILD- MY PREGNANT WIFE CARRIED THE OTHER CHILD- A / SOLDIER HELD A GUN TO ME & TIED MY HANDS SOLDIERS WERE ON THE ROOF I CA[backwards N]'T REMEMBER / MY BROTHER'S [sic] WERE HANDCUFFED THEY PUT THE WOMEN & CHILDREN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD / It WAS THE WORST DAY THEY TOOK EVERYTHING I[backwards N] THE HOUSE THEY COVERED MY HEAD WITH A BAG / IN THE PRISON THE [female symbol] SOLDIER ASKED ME TO TAKE OFF MY CLOTHES I BEGGED NOT TO SHE ASKED ME / IF I WAS MARRIED AND HOW MANY CHILDREN I HAD AND I CRIED BECAUSE I WORRIED ABOUT MY WIFE AND / CHILDREN [inscribed horizontally with left at bottom edge]; inscribed, in block, right: A FEMALE INVESTIGATOR WOULD MAKE [make has strikethrough] A PRISONER GET DOWN ON THE GROUND / A[backwards N]D KICK HIM 50 METERS ACROSS THE CONCRETE AND BACK THEN SHE ASKED / HIM IF HE WANTED TO GO TO GUANTANOMO, THAT HE WOULD BE SENT THERE / AND THAT HE WOULD BE RAPED BY TEN BLACK AMERICANS / WE WERE ALL VERY DEPRESSED WE WERE CONSTANTLY CRYING / I WOULD LIKE TO WRITE AN ARTICLE AND PUBLISH It SO THAT THIS / CAN STOP SO THAT WHAT HAPPENED TO ME CAN STOP. [oriented horizontally with left at top edge] Embossed, lower right corner margin: [insignia: C [symbol] [three horizontal lines stacked vertically], with arc above and below] Watermark, lower right: BFK RIVES

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 47, Bearing Witness, The Abu Ghraib Project by Daniel Heyman, Kristin Monahan Garcia, MALS 2005, Assistant Curator of Academic and Student Programming and John Mathias, Class of 2011, Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 5, 2008-February 1, 2009. [Exhibited in conjunction with Dartmouth College's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration and its 2009 theme, "Getting to the Mountaintop: Moving through Conflict toward Reconciliation."

Provenance

The artist, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; sold to the present collection, 2007.

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Subjects