June 3 - September 25, 2022
From Blue Star Contemporary:
“San Antonio, Texas on May 31, 2022.- Blue Star Contemporary, is proud to present the Veterans Book Project, a library of books authored collaboratively by artist Monica Haller and dozens of contributors who have shared their personal experiences with the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The printed books provide a place or “container” that slows down and materializes the great quantity of ephemeral image files that live on veterans’ hard drives and in their heads. Each book re-deploys volatile images with the aim of rearticulating and refashioning memories. Each book stands as an independent capsule that is also in concert with the larger collection.
The Veterans Book Project will be shared with BSC audiences in a reading room setting in BSC’s Art Learning Lab, a space for thoughtful contemplation and dialogue. Artist Monica Haller works with veterans who share mobile phone images, emails, journal entries and other personal effects that capture the war experience at its core. Featured in the books are visual stories of soldiers, family members, and individuals affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first edition of the Veterans Book Project printed in 2009 and has since been exhibited internationally with presentations in Europe and The United States.
The Veterans Book Project compliments Travel Distance, an exhibition conceived by independent curator and interdisciplinary artist Amber Zora, also opening on June 3, 2022 at Blue Star Contemporary. The artworks featured represent how veterans and their families have processed, moved through, purged, and reclaimed their experience around military service. The exhibition features the work of Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), Joe Devera, Claudia Hare, Jenn Hassin, Gina Herrera, Jessica Putnam-Phillips, Daniel Rios Rodriguez, Renee Romero, and Sarah Sudhoff.
These exhibitions coincide with the Blue Star Museums program, a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 2,000 museums. Running from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2022, museums across the United States
offer free general admission to active-duty military personnel and their families. Blue Star Contemporary annually participates in this program to help thank its military community.”
On View: June 3, 2022 | 12–5 pm
116 Blue Star
San Antonio, 78204 TX
(210) 227-6960
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