My submission to 3rd Ward's Open Call: Siddiqui Trial Sketches

You can find my 3rd Ward profile page here (not anymore).  My submission statement is reprinted below:

I recently had the opportunity to assist with the making of a documentary film about the late artist, Mark Lombardi. Best known for his abstract drawings that depicted the scandal-ridden relationships between international figures of power, Lombardi believed that the most compelling art was based on real world events - events that sometimes remained largely unnoticed by the public at large.

The more I learned about Lombardi's artistic process of intense research, the more I felt compelled to continue in a similar vein with my own work.  Much too often, today's galleries are filled with works that are heavy in technique and form, but light in substance.  While at the same time, there are complex and sordid stories behind the headlines of newspapers that remain largely unnoticed.  Therefore, my aim is to make better use of creative tools so as to retell and reinterpret significant events, in hopes that the stories may reach a more diverse audience and their lessons not be forgotten.

The content of my submission are sketches I made during the trial of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. On September 23, 2010, Siddiqui received a sentence of 86 years after being found guilty of numerous charges - among them, attempted murder of U.S. soldiers and federal agents.

What makes Siddiqui's case unique are the questions that still remain in light of her trial. Where was she prior to her arrest in Afghanistan in July 2008? Was she, as some have alleged, being held in a secret prison at Bagram as Prisoner #650? After all three of her children disappeared, two have turned up - where were they, and what is the fate of her third and youngest child, Suleman?

The fact that some of these questions may never be answered (without the revelation of classified information) highlights some of the shortcomings of the U.S.-led War on Terror. But more broadly, the limits of law, as an ideal of modern, constitutional liberalism, come to the fore. And it is precisely this condition of incommensurability with our ideals that I had in mind when producing these courtroom sketches.

Stylistically, these sketches intentionally differ from the rote, courtroom sketches usually made for evening-news panning. Either finished and flat, or rough, with notes on the side, they retain a resistance to a completely fleshed-out story: their incompleteness is eponymous. A deference to skepticism is maintained, paralleling that which is deserved for Siddiqui's case, as well as any other instance in which a nation proclaims "Victory" over its enemies.