Metropolitan State University Gordon Parks Gallery presents Always Lost: A Meditation on War. The exhibit opens with a reception from 6–8 p.m. on Thursday, July 30 and continues through Aug. 21. This nationally touring humanities exhibit is on loan to the Minnesota Humanities Center from Western Nevada College and is sponsored by Metropolitan State’s Arts Exhibition Committee. The gallery is located in the Library and Learning Center, 645 East Seventh Street, at the university’s Saint Paul Campus. It is open to the public free of charge. Gallery hours are Mondays–Thursdays, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. and Saturdays, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
“War is never fatal but always lost. Always lost.”—Gertrude Stein, a quote inspiring the exhibit’s title. In fall 2008, Western Nevada College sociology professor Don Carlson was stopped in his tracks by The New York Times’ Roster of the Dead. “Four thousand faces of American military who had perished in Iraq stared at me,” he said, “and I realized that this war has been perhaps one of the most impersonal wars ever fought.”
The heart of Always Lost is the Wall of the Dead: individual photographs with names of the more than 6,500 U.S. military war casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. The exhibition has evolved into a powerful meditation on the effect of war on each of us. It has become a sacred space in which to contemplate the personal costs and collective sacrifice of these particular conflicts, and consequently, of all wars. In the meantime, casualties continue to mount, and the Wall of the Dead continues to grow.
Contact: Susan Amos Palmer
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