Botanica bones & bikes

by Bill Davenport September 22, 2010

Saturday, September 25, at 2pm Labotanica, Houston presents a Bone Making Event in support of the One Million Bones project on the national mall in 2013. Participants will showcase their creativity and join a global community working to end genocide by making a bone. On the same day, from 3-4p.m.. Space City Art Bicycles (S.C.A.B.) will exhibit some of their collaged art bikes, inaugurating James Ciosek’s new art-bike initiative. Free!

5 comments

5 comments

rainbird September 22, 2010 - 16:03

Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier for us to just all agree not to commit genocide that day?
Hell, adopt a puppy from your local shelter on that day. Take care of him or her.
Get real Bill, you and your straws.

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ayannatimestwo September 23, 2010 - 08:15 Reply
ayannatimestwo September 23, 2010 - 08:16

The video gives greater context on this project. I was given the link by Carrie Schneider, the artist who is presenting the project at labotanica here in Houston. She’s been creating art directly with refugee Burmese youth here in Houston. When you look at the systemic and deep-rooted histories of genocide in places like Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, and Burma and try to understand how this happens and populations get wiped out, how massive murders are justified because of ideological stands, political stands, land issues, religious justifications you see that it is not so easy to simply agree to not commit genocide. There have been so many governmental attempts to dissolve these divisions and that sometimes work and don’t. Sometimes it can take the visual language of art to create a visceral reaction among us that this is real and deep-rooted. It often becomes our introduction and point of entry to this much bigger dialogue and this project is a great out of the box fundraising tool.

Carrie Schneider and James Ciosek have been working collaboratively to present art projects (murals and collaged art bikes) to Burmese refugee youth in our community, many who have experienced the effects of genocide on some level. Come out to hear more on this project and others which is part of School of Latitudes an out of the box artist residency, presented by labotanica. This Saturday for one day will be presenting public presentations One Million Bones and Space City Art Bicycles among others.

More:
http://labotanica.org/latitudes/
http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/613860/1f90413153/282252913/f3c5965171/

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nnatale September 23, 2010 - 10:26

On behalf of all of us at One Million Bones I would like to thank you all for voicing your comments and concerns relating to this project. This type of dialogue is exactly the kind of conversations we hoped to initiate in the context of this horrific issue; why does genocide happen today? how we can we respond effectively? Why can’t the international community come together to end and prevent genocide once and for all? I encourage you to keep asking these questions and to remember the millions of people who have been killed and displaced from the genocides and mass atrocities that are happening today, this very minute, in Sudan, the DRC, and Burma.

While it is beyond of the scope of One Million Bones to target the root causes of genocide itself, we do target the root cause of our government’s lack of response to genocide, both historically and today. Political will is directly linked to public will. OMB deals directly with public frustration, apathy, and hopelessness, targeting the uncertainty of whether individuals can make a difference.

We offer an avenue to social activism that has a visible impact, an avenue that makes apparent that one person’s actions will be matched by another and another and another, and, at the end of the project, offers an opportunity to see the fruition of that exponential growth of actions, a public installation leading to an effective shift in political will.

I absolutely believe that our voices matter, but we need to find them.

Naomi Natale
Founder/Director
One Million Bones

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rainbird September 25, 2010 - 16:34

And,You are most welcome.
I would personally like to see one speck (one fucking speck) of difference you or your one million artist make bones
made.
Your believing in it absolutely doesn’t make a knat’s ass worth of difference.

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