Ephemeral Visibility and the Art of Mourning: Eyes Wide Open Traveling Exhibit

How does one commemorate an ongoing war, especially if this war is being waged under false pretenses and its military and civilian toll is kept out of public discussion?1 This was precisely the challenge faced by groups and persons opposed to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Frustrated by the apparent indifference of the government and mainstream media to the mounting casualty count, many communities, citizen groups, and individuals took matters into their own hands in order to make visible, and sometimes to protest, the human cost of the Iraq war. Their interventions often took a conspicuously non-monumental form and sprang up in locations far away from the Washington Mall.