Fabricating Rain, an installation and interactive community-driven action, was created by Julia Mandle to mend wounds caused by America's abuse of civil rights at a turning point in our country's policy on the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay.
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Inspired by Jean-Marc Bouju’s heart-wrenching photograph of a hooded Iraqi detainee covering the eyes of his young son at the start of America’s invasion of Iraq, Mandle created the first version of Fabricating Rain in 2007 at The Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York. Titled Fabrication of Blindness, Mandle hung a growing dark cloud of black hoods, made from U. S. military issue sandbags, from the ceiling of the gallery to explore her own sense of blindness, remorse, guilt, and powerlessness related to the U. S. occupation of Iraq.
As America begins to negotiate the aftermath of actions in Guantanamo Bay, Mandle connected the voices of detainees, represented by the cloud of hoods, to the actions of dissenters through the launch of Fabricating Rain at Transformer gallery in Washington DC. During the course of the installation, audiences embroidered detainee-written narratives and poetry onto the hoods that formed the core of Fabrication of Blindness. Mandle states, “I have come to believe that it might only be when we feel the painful reality of what our country has caused—and stay with it, not turn a blind eye—that we will be inspired to truly act and change course. I believe that art can play an instigating role.”
Fabricating Rain, an installation and interactive community-driven action, was created by Julia Mandle to mend wounds caused by America's abuse of civil rights at a turning point in our country's policy on the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay.
PAGEBREAK
Inspired by Jean-Marc Bouju’s heart-wrenching photograph of a hooded Iraqi detainee covering the eyes of his young son at the start of America’s invasion of Iraq, Mandle created the first version of Fabricating Rain in 2007 at The Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York. Titled Fabrication of Blindness, Mandle hung a growing dark cloud of black hoods, made from U. S. military issue sandbags, from the ceiling of the gallery to explore her own sense of blindness, remorse, guilt, and powerlessness related to the U. S. occupation of Iraq.
As America begins to negotiate the aftermath of actions in Guantanamo Bay, Mandle connected the voices of detainees, represented by the cloud of hoods, to the actions of dissenters through the launch of Fabricating Rain at Transformer gallery in Washington DC. During the course of the installation, audiences embroidered detainee-written narratives and poetry onto the hoods that formed the core of Fabrication of Blindness. Mandle states, “I have come to believe that it might only be when we feel the painful reality of what our country has caused—and stay with it, not turn a blind eye—that we will be inspired to truly act and change course. I believe that art can play an instigating role.”
