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Before & After - Alighiero Boetti (excerpt)
Today's message, “Before & After”
This week, the United States military mission ended in Afghanistan. The U.S. effectively or ostensibly exited the longest war in American history. A war that killed over 2,400 U.S. troops.
There is always a before and after, whether it is the collapse of the Soviet Union, the removal of the Berlin Wall, the attacks on September 11th or a global pandemic that shuts down air travel and forces all of society to pause...
It is this heavy feeling of innocence lost, or perhaps a death to the life, in many cases, we were unconsciously and robotically living. In the aftermath, once the chaos settles, we find ourselves in stillness.
I am reminded of an art exhibition I viewed many years ago, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which touched on the civil unrest in Afghanistan. 50 years ago, Italian conceptual artist, Alighiero Boetti, commissioned Afghani women to embroider large global map tapestries which he called, “Mappa” with each country depicting its national flag.
- The Afghani women Boetti hired to work on the maps, had never seen traditional global maps, so the thread colors they chose to fill in the earth’s ocean weren’t blue, but instead, vibrant shades pink and orange.
- Between 1971 and 1994, Boetti continued his Mappa project as the nations, country rulers and flags continually changed, meaning every map essentially highlighted the before and after in geopolitical changes year over year.
- In his 1983 map, Boetti left Afghanistan blank without a flag as the Soviet Union had occupied the country and its fate was uncertain.
It is both the vibrant shades of color depicting the earth’s ocean and the blankness of Afghanistan from that 1983 map that has stayed with me all these years later from that exhibition. How fitting are both examples in illuminating the tender times of political, societal and cultural change.
It is in reflection of the ‘before’ then the determination of its ‘after’ where we experience the awe of stillness.
It is as if everything we thought we knew or believed is suddenly set on fire. It is in these quiet moments where we must look beyond the smoke and create something new.
Connect with me:
Instagram.com/megan_nycmom
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By Megan StalnakerToday's message, “Before & After”
This week, the United States military mission ended in Afghanistan. The U.S. effectively or ostensibly exited the longest war in American history. A war that killed over 2,400 U.S. troops.
There is always a before and after, whether it is the collapse of the Soviet Union, the removal of the Berlin Wall, the attacks on September 11th or a global pandemic that shuts down air travel and forces all of society to pause...
It is this heavy feeling of innocence lost, or perhaps a death to the life, in many cases, we were unconsciously and robotically living. In the aftermath, once the chaos settles, we find ourselves in stillness.
I am reminded of an art exhibition I viewed many years ago, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which touched on the civil unrest in Afghanistan. 50 years ago, Italian conceptual artist, Alighiero Boetti, commissioned Afghani women to embroider large global map tapestries which he called, “Mappa” with each country depicting its national flag.
- The Afghani women Boetti hired to work on the maps, had never seen traditional global maps, so the thread colors they chose to fill in the earth’s ocean weren’t blue, but instead, vibrant shades pink and orange.
- Between 1971 and 1994, Boetti continued his Mappa project as the nations, country rulers and flags continually changed, meaning every map essentially highlighted the before and after in geopolitical changes year over year.
- In his 1983 map, Boetti left Afghanistan blank without a flag as the Soviet Union had occupied the country and its fate was uncertain.
It is both the vibrant shades of color depicting the earth’s ocean and the blankness of Afghanistan from that 1983 map that has stayed with me all these years later from that exhibition. How fitting are both examples in illuminating the tender times of political, societal and cultural change.
It is in reflection of the ‘before’ then the determination of its ‘after’ where we experience the awe of stillness.
It is as if everything we thought we knew or believed is suddenly set on fire. It is in these quiet moments where we must look beyond the smoke and create something new.
Connect with me:
Instagram.com/megan_nycmom