by MzNicky
For the past year Ava Lowery has been creating video clips and posting them to her web site, Peace Takes Courage. For many of them, the 15-year-old Alabama girl uses simple, brief captions in white against a stark black page as the visual backdrop for photographs—the kind you’ll never see on CNN or MSNBC.
Accompanied by well-chosen musical selections, these works are short, to-the-point, and very moving expressions of Lowery’s feelings about the Iraq war and the Bush administration. The heartbreaking “Someone’s,” for example, mixes images of the broken bodies of US soldiers, Iraqi soldiers, and Iraqi civilians with the Cranberries’ haunting “Zombie.”
Lowery’s most recent piece - WWJD? - has created some buzz lately—and not just because of its entry into a contest at Huffington Post. This clip features images of mangled, bloodied Iraqi children as a lone child’s voice, and then a chorus, sings "Jesus Loves Me." It ends with Scripture, from the Beatitudes: "Blessed are they who mourn"; "Blessed are the meek"; "Blessed are the peacemakers."
But the piece has not received unanimously glowing reviews. Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive writes that, in addition to death threats, Lowery has received such e-mails as the following:
“It’s people like you who need to f**king die and get raped while your corpse rots in the sun...F**k you, I would jack off on your parents if I could. If you don’t like the team, get out of the park. That means take ur small dick and get the f**k off of my homeland you faggot chocolate gulper.”
“You are a TRAITOR to your country and should be executed for treason. All you do is bitch about the US. If you hate it so much, why don’t you GET THE F**K OUT.”
“Why don’t you go masterbate [sic] to a pic of [Cindy] Sheehan and f**k off.”
Well, you can’t please everyone, I guess. Such is the artist’s life.
Jesus wept. Or at least, that’s what I think he would do. I guess God-fearing patriots who terrorize a teenager with anonymous obscenity and threats must get their talking points from a different Bible—perhaps the King George version?
See some of Ava Lowery's work: Impeach the Decider; The Time is Now; Broken Promises; WWJD?
Visit Ava Lowery's website: Peace Takes Courage
Peace War Bush War Crimes Ava Lowery Peace Takes Courage Alabama 2008 Iraq Impeach Bush
posted by egalia for MzNicky
