A thought-provoking project by a band of Iraq veterans is to gather a group of vets and students at local colleges and shred military uniforms into handmade “combat paper”—which is then inscribed with images or messages designed by the vets.
For instance, Drew Cameron printed a poem over photos of a soldier shedding his uniform, titled “You Are Not My Enemy.” His work appears in a collection of poetry and art titled Warrior Writers: Re-Making Sense, published earlier this year by Iraq Veterans Against the War.
The Combat Paper Project is bringing this creative take on war memories to New Jersey on November 10-15 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Garden State vets are invited to participate in the workshops, which are free, at the Brodsky Center for Print and Paper.
“Veterans of wars in Iraq, Viet Nam, World War II and Bosnia, have contributed so far,” says Cameron, an Army vet of the Iraqi campaign who has helped lead more than a dozen such workshops across the country. “From each new participant, I take a piece of fabric and mix it into the lineage pulp. This pulp is then mixed in with each new batch of pulp, so a little piece of each vet’s uniform is in every new piece of paper made.”
Many of these recycled works of art have been shown in a number of art shows and galleries around the country. But the biggest artistic impact may be on the vet who shed the uniform. “The Combat Paper Project gives vets a chance to fight back against their trauma — taking the horrors of war from the battlefield into the studio, sharing their experiences with other veterans, and remaking those experiences into something entirely new,” writer Julia Rappaport noted in a perceptive news report (“Scars & Stripes,” 9/25/08) in the Boston Phoenix.
“The story of the fiber, the blood, sweat and tears, the months of hardship and brutal violence are held within those old uniforms. The uniforms often become inhabitants of closets or boxes in the attic. Reclaiming that association of subordination, of warfare and service into something collective and beautiful is our inspiration,” says Cameron, who founded the Combat Paper Project in Burlington, Vermont with fellow artist Drew Matott.
Cameron, Matott and other papermaking veterans will be at Rutgers November 10–15 at the Judith K. and David J. Brodsky Center for Print and Paper in the Department of Visual Arts, Mason Gross School of the Arts, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. They will conduct a combat paper workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday with area veterans and students, followed by an evening of readings and performances on Friday. To sign up, call 732-932-2222 ext 838 or email Cameron at drewcameron@combatpaper.org.
For more information: http://www.combatpaper.org/index.html
For instance, Drew Cameron printed a poem over photos of a soldier shedding his uniform, titled “You Are Not My Enemy.” His work appears in a collection of poetry and art titled Warrior Writers: Re-Making Sense, published earlier this year by Iraq Veterans Against the War.
The Combat Paper Project is bringing this creative take on war memories to New Jersey on November 10-15 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Garden State vets are invited to participate in the workshops, which are free, at the Brodsky Center for Print and Paper.
“Veterans of wars in Iraq, Viet Nam, World War II and Bosnia, have contributed so far,” says Cameron, an Army vet of the Iraqi campaign who has helped lead more than a dozen such workshops across the country. “From each new participant, I take a piece of fabric and mix it into the lineage pulp. This pulp is then mixed in with each new batch of pulp, so a little piece of each vet’s uniform is in every new piece of paper made.”
Many of these recycled works of art have been shown in a number of art shows and galleries around the country. But the biggest artistic impact may be on the vet who shed the uniform. “The Combat Paper Project gives vets a chance to fight back against their trauma — taking the horrors of war from the battlefield into the studio, sharing their experiences with other veterans, and remaking those experiences into something entirely new,” writer Julia Rappaport noted in a perceptive news report (“Scars & Stripes,” 9/25/08) in the Boston Phoenix.
“The story of the fiber, the blood, sweat and tears, the months of hardship and brutal violence are held within those old uniforms. The uniforms often become inhabitants of closets or boxes in the attic. Reclaiming that association of subordination, of warfare and service into something collective and beautiful is our inspiration,” says Cameron, who founded the Combat Paper Project in Burlington, Vermont with fellow artist Drew Matott.
Cameron, Matott and other papermaking veterans will be at Rutgers November 10–15 at the Judith K. and David J. Brodsky Center for Print and Paper in the Department of Visual Arts, Mason Gross School of the Arts, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. They will conduct a combat paper workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday with area veterans and students, followed by an evening of readings and performances on Friday. To sign up, call 732-932-2222 ext 838 or email Cameron at drewcameron@combatpaper.org.
For more information: http://www.combatpaper.org/index.html
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