After the Clash
(an evening at The Reach Gallery)
The gallery was crowded
that night–fifty
or more of us
for wall after overwhelming
wall of photographs:
Of soldiers exhausted and
staring without seeing,
A child missing a leg,
A refugee girl waiting
and wanting to board a ship
to somewhere–
(where?)
anywhere that would take her.
More soldiers having a smoke,
mounded graves,
mourners and banner-wavers,
Kanesatake and Korea,
and it seems like everywhere,
The pond where the ashes of Auschwitz
still cry out
in the silence.
After all that
I could hardly sit
to listen to the speaker,
yet I’m sure I heard her say,
“In war there are only losers.”
Clash: Conflict and Its Consequences is an excellent exhibit of photographs drawn from the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. It includes both documentary photographs and re-enactments, and raises important questions of conflict, identity, witness, and how we remember.
These are not easy photographs to look at; even the curator said about one wall featuring photos of children, “This wall is very hard for me.” But if you’re able, I do recommend taking in this exhibit at The Reach Gallery Museum, which continues until March 30.
