Art & Art History

Opening reception February 23: RSVP

From 1980-1992, Peru was ravaged by Maoist guerilla insurgents known as the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). The quiet unknown town of Ayacucho became the base of this political upheaval, caught in the midst of brutality and poverty. As the Peruvian insurgency was fading in 1992, half a world away Sierra Leone was facing the beginnings of its own gruesome civil war. Lasting until 2001, this ghastly conflict enveloped the country, leaving a trail of destruction and 50,000 dead.

Today, both regions bear the cruel marks of political upheaval, suffering from a lack of social, educational, and adequate sanitary systems. With imbalanced demographics and unsteady familial structures, Ayacucho and Sierra Leone struggle to overcome poverty and history and move towards stability and progress.

In 2007 and 2008, photographers Paul Dixon and Lexi Namer traveled to these broken places with the hope that photography could heal the scars of violence. Dixon traveled to Sierra Leone to work with iEarn, an organization in the capital of Freetown that uses education to rehabilitate youth who have suffered from war and its effects. Namer worked in Ayacucho with La Casa Hogar Los Gorriones, an orphanage in the poorest district of the town, taking in children from broken, weakened, and dysfunctional families, many of whom are disabled.

Both artists implemented digital photography classes, putting cameras in the hands of the children to give them a means of storytelling both foreign and freeing. The cameras were to serve as a tool for self-expression and healing; the photos as a means to document the history of struggle in these two regions through the eyes of the children.  The exhibition Through Their Eyes will use the photographs of Dixon and Namer and the photographs of their students to express the scarring trauma that civil war creates and the seemingly insurmountable path to recovery that lies ahead.

The exhibition’s message does not end in despair, however. Organizations such as iEarn in Sierra Leone and La Casa Hogar in Ayacucho are striving to bring hope to those most affected by this struggle: the children. Whether in South America or Africa, a child lost in the legacy or torrent of war is not lost forever. Despite the suffering these children have endured, Through Their Eyes proves the strength that still exists within them and the power of art to revive an energy and a hope once thought extinguished.

100% of the proceeds made from the exhibition will be donated to La Casa Hogar Los Gorriones and iEarn to continue to aid and uplift these children in their struggle to move past their region’s violent pasts.

Visit the following links to see the photography series that will be on display:
Lexi Namer:Peru
Paul Dixon: Sierra Leone