January 22 – May 14, 2005 EXPRESSIONS OF WAR AND CHILDREN The impact of war is devastating for children on both sides. In January 2005 the National Vietnam Veterans Museum (NVVAM) in Chicago opened Children of War, a unique collection of artwork by veterans and their children. Children of War was a large and unique collection of artwork by Vietnam Veterans that depicts the children of the Vietnam War, and offers a "civilian" component exploring the War's impact on the children of veterans. There are two views of war and children. The exhibit included photos taken by veterans of Vietnamese children and a variety of art by children of veterans, who search to know their fathers, and understand the War, through art. This poignant exhibit featured works by three children of Vietnam Veterans as well as a number of pieces by Vietnam Veterans about children, showing that war affects everyone, young and old, American and Vietnamese children alike. Left: Delta Boy, Jim McJunkin Right: Slicky Boys Eyeing a G.I.'s Sucker Pocket (1968), Aldo Panzieri "Among my more worthwhile experiences as a soldier in a country at war, some of the more memorable ones had to do with children," said Curator Jerry Kykisz. "I sadly came to realize that some were willing combatants, risking life and limb as fellow warriors, as well as innocent victims of tragedy. Children of War is such an important exhibit for the Museum and an opportunity to highlight others affected by the War." Doll Sellers, William Miles One artist was awarded his father's purple heart when he was just two years old. Tom Hubbard's father was a US Marine killed in 1966. The work deals specifically with that loss and the search to know his father as an adult. Hubbard re-constructed his father's tour of duty using USMC field reports to visit battlefields, the DMZ and places his father served, including the village of Kim Lien, where he and three other Marines were killed. Hubbard carefully documented his journey in sketchbooks, which later became the foundation for this exhibition, and combined his talent as a graphic designer with his passion for ceramics and photography. #25 Scorched Earth Policy, Quang Tin Province (1970), Laszlo Kondor The centerpiece of the exhibition was a series of seventeen ceramic vessels loosely based on military bunkers and artillery shells. These raku-fired vessels combine narrative elements from his father’s letters home during the war, USMC field reports and his own journal entries with black and white images of his father in Vietnam, and Hubbard's own photographs. The work is called Semper Fidelis: How I Met My Father. There were a variety of visual arts, including sculptures, paintings and photographs as well as audio and electronic arts. A large collection of photos of Vietnamese children depicts the loss of innocence as they pose with guns and cigarettes at very young ages; they were deadly components to Vietnam's war efforts. Other artists include Kolleen Mitchell, whose photography of her father shows a man who died spiritually, not physically, from post-traumatic stress disorder and continues to live with the War all around him everyday. Sally Packard is an Assistant Professor of visual arts in Denton, TX and presents a strong, thought-provoking element to the exhibit with empty chairs covered by a gauze tent. Left: Installation, Sally Packard Right: Whose Child, Mike Duffy