Artist, Iraq Veteran Aaron Hughes Visits Lycoming College
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Tea, History and Vulnerability," an exhibition, performance and discussion with visiting artist and Iraq veteran Aaron Hughes will be held 4-5:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at the Lycoming College Art Gallery. The exhibition continues through Feb. 19, 2010
Tea is an ongoing dialogue that traverses a variety of landscapes. From the tea sipped on in this instillation, to a quaint coffee shop in the Lower Eastside, to a cage in Guantanamo Bay, to a motor pool in Iraq; tea is not only a favored drink but a shared moment that transcends cultural divides and systems of oppression. That is not meant as a clichéd utopian statement, but as a reminder of a shared humanity that is so often overlooked.
tea |tē| noun
• a hot drink made by infusing the dried, crushed leaves of the tea plant in boiling water.
Tea: A performance. A discussion. Thoughts from a veteran’s return voyage to Iraq
243 detainees left in Guantánamo
243 Styrofoam flowers
Artist Residency
Aaron Hughes will be an artist in residence at Lycoming College from Jan 24-28, working with art students on pieces of the gallery installation, and he will lead a Warrior Writers workshop for veterans. Hughes is a featured artist on the Warrior Writers website (www.warriorwriters.org). He is the first reader on the opening page and more reading, art and photos are on his feature page at http://www.warriorwriters.org/Artists/aaron.html. The Warrior Writers Project website was created by Lycoming Art Professor Lynn Estomin. Veterans interested in participating in the Warrior Writers workshop in January with Aaron Hughes should contact Lynn Estomin at estomin@lycoming.edu.
THE STORY BEHIND “TEA”
The combat support missions would halt. The day would end. The sun would set.
In the motor pool where we all slept the third country nationals, “hadjis,” would roll out a rug, pull out a hot plate, gather around, and warm water to make tea. Tea that was always generously offered despite…
Would you like to know some trivia?
That is how all of this started. The photographs. The tea. An old woman turns to me on the bus and asks, would you like to know some trivia.
So I said, Of course I would like to hear some trivia.
Well she said, when I was a young girl… Do you know the stables back that way?
Yes of course they give pony rides for children on Sundays.
Yes. Well when I was a young girl in high school. My girlfriends and I would go horseback riding from that stable and do you know the buildings that are back up in the forest preserve that way?
No. I did not know there were buildings back up in there.
Yes, well when I was a young girl it was a POW camp and there were all these young beautiful German boys in the camp. It was a work camp and so they were strong and handsome. And well my girlfriends and I would ride our horses over to the camp and flirt with the boys and blow them kisses.
Why did she tell me this story… this bit of trivia?
Actually that’s what started all this. I can’t understand why she told me this story. Was it just chance? Did I remind her of something? Did she some how know?
Do I remind you of the German prisoners of war? The young prisoners of war?
As a boy I rode my bike to the botanical gardens through this same space.
Do I remind you of a German soldier?
I did research on the camps. Turns out there were over 600 POW camps in the States. Most were work camps filled with German and Italian prisoners. The one down the road was called Skokie Valley POW Camp. The prisoners would farm and work in the orchids that used to be around here. They even built a chapel on the old Glenview Navel Air Base.
One of the books I read was called “We Were Each Others Prisoners.” It was an oral history and one of the detainees that was locked up in Michigan fell in love with an American. They even got married after the war.
It’s funny that Chris is from Michigan and that he fell in love in one of those detainee camps too…
“How to Become a Concentration Camp Guard Without Even Trying…” that’s what Chris said about it all.
I know Chris liked working night shifts, because whenever they were awake, he wanted to apologize to them. When they were sleeping, He didn’t have to worry about it. He could just walk up and down the blocks all night long.
He fell in love… He missed the cups. The detainees were only allowed to have Styrofoam cups, and they would write and draw all over them.
Chris was not familiar with Muslim culture… none of us were… are…
but he learned that they don’t draw the human form, maybe not any creatures, but they draw a lot of flowers. They would cover the cups with flowers.
Then he would have to take them. It was a ridiculous process. It was as if they were writing some kind of secret message that they were somehow going to throw into the ocean, that would get back to somebody — he would send them to our military intelligence and they would just look at these things and then throw them away.
Chris loved those little cups…
I asked Chris what he would draw on the cups if he were going to serve Arabic tea in them… He said, “I’d draw flowers for sure… Islamic designs… its tough to say.”
Regardless, I know I would like to have Arabic tea in one of those cups along the river whether it is the north branch of the Chicago or the Euphrates where I dreamed of how connected it all is; the Euphrates to the gulf to the ocean to the lakes to home.
Aaron Hughes Bio
On January 30, 2003 I was pulled out of the University of Illinois and called to active duty with the 1244th Transportation Company Army National Guard out of North Riverside, Illinois. On April 17, 2003 my Company was deployed to Kuwait under Operation Iraqi Freedom. There I supported combat operations by transporting supplies from camps and ports in Kuwait to camps in Iraq. After three extensions, totaling one year, three months and seven days, my Company was redeployed to home base in North Riverside Illinois on July 24, 2004. I returned to the University of Illinois in the spring of 2005 as a student majoring in painting with the need to express and share my experiences with others. I have dedicated my life to making art that will deconstruct the culture of dehumanization and hate that was so prevalent while deployed.
Personal website: http://www.aarhughes.org
For more information contact:
Rose Dirocco
Art Gallery Director
Lycoming College
570-321-4002
