Here we attend the funeral of a man,a father and a husband. Huong allsows us to be voyeurs, to look into his open casket, to listen to the wailing of his family. We watch as his bereaved wife, adrift in thought, hair raised in flight from the scene. In her hand there are flowers a part of what is still alive. We hear her calling him back to life. She refuses to accept his death. Medals of Honor rest upon his heart, a testament to his courage and sacrifice in the War. He will take these medals to the grave where they will mix the dry bones of yesterday's dead.

Thew children are in a triangle of catastrophe and chaos- a prediction of their future and the future of war children all over the earth. Their tears will flow into the tears of others.

The purple sky represents Death, Loss, and Sadness. The dripping candles and red rain symbolize universal tears, the acid rain of war, pain of loss, bathing the mourners of today's war and tomorrow's tragedies.

In this culture, he is head of the family. The family is now incomplete. His chair is empty. The chair will remain empty as the Wife, The Mother, the Women must carry the family's burden in an uphill climb to survival.

Text By, Sandi Wicina, Curator of Arts
©2004. Art, War, and Peace Museum.