Laura Boles Faw

Bio

Laura Boles Faw was born in Atlanta, Georgia, received her BA in Art History from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and now resides in San Francisco, California where she attends the San Francisco Art Institute. She is a sculpture major in the BFA program.

Statement

All Enemies is a piece that comments on the current political situation in Myanmar and the attacks by the junta on the Buddhist monks who have been involved in civil protest. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has a long history of unrest. The Myanmar government's propagandistic motto contains words such as "peace, stability, and unity" and yet a quote in a New York Times article taken from Myanmar's Armed Forces Day in March 2006 states the following: "Crushing all enemies, on land, underground and at sea, all enemies, we will crush them totally, until they are uprooted, decimated."1.

This type of militaristic speech is shocking and thus out of touch with the population of this largely Buddhist nation. Many people continue to be surprised that the military considers the monks as enemies to be crushed, uprooted, and decimated.

All Enemies is composed of eyeglass lenses etched with the above quoted text from Myanmar's Armed Forces Day. The lenses with different prescriptions make a fairly literal reference to not only our perceptions as foreigners of this horrible situation, but also to the lens of power established by this militaristic regime. The lenses are suspended several inches from the wall on steel rods. Light shines through the lenses and casts distorted shadows of the text onto the wall. These shadows land on and around silhouetted images of the Buddhist monks painted onto the wall. In an attempt to access the imagery and the text, both distorted by the lenses, viewers possibly implicate themselves through their gaze.

1. Seth Mydans, "More Than Just a Fighting Force, Myanmar's Military is the Nation's Driving Force," New York Times, 7 October, 2007.