EVENTS: UR students stage war's horror

City Newspaper Archives - 4/2007

Published by Tim Louis Macaluso on Apr 17, 2007

{Updated article} UR student Jessica Bell-Masterson says she became concerned when the Bush administration continued the military build-up in Iraq after the mid-term elections.

"It bothers me that we are moving more toward keeping the status quo," she says. "We are becoming desensitized to killing, the body parts from explosions, and the mass destruction these people are living through."

Bell-Masterson and Madeliene Cutrona, also a UR student, wanted to bring attention to the horrors of the Iraq War by recreating the aftermath of the January 17 Baghdad University bombing.

"They are our peers," says Bell-Masterson. "This could happen to any of us, and we wanted to show our solidarity and support for what they are living with every day."

The UR's Students for Social Justice group created a 3-D art installation simulating a giant newspaper, and they exhibited it yesterday on the campus. The 30-by-50-foot newspaper included a picture of the university's bombing, with items attached to it representing the destruction of war: shoes, furniture, clothing, bricks, books, and other materials.

On Thursday, Bell-Masterson and Cutrona presented a performance art piece, "Vulnerable Bodies," recording the vulnerabilities and emotions of students in a time of war.

The two pieces are part of a week of action and art against the Iraq War, including a parade of students posing as military contractors and staged checkpoints with students acting as soldiers and civilians.