Background

In this post-9/11 world, lines are being drawn in the sand that further separate the “us” from “them”. These separations manifest themselves, on both sides of the line, as mistrust, misunderstanding, and hatred. As the world's only superpower, led by an administration of conservative Christians, launched its campaign against terror in various lands of the Middle East, the boundaries being defined are, alarmingly, being drawn along religious lines. Extremists from both Christianity & Islam, two religions that share the same God and are supposed to be based on a loving and peaceful existence, are squaring off for a fight. I fear that these fundamentalist feelings and thoughts are becoming more mainstream and out of control. If each side does not stop to consider the other’s situation, learn to accept each other's differences, and live peacefully together, we are heading into a world of insecurity and hatred that will have more profound, devastating, and long lasting effects than any cold war ever did.

Motivation

To express myself while dealing with this ever growing threat to our world's peace and stability, and to help us, as a global community, to erase the lines in the sand, I am creating an "interactive sculpture". With it I hope to send a timely message of peace and tolerance during the user's experience as he/she interacts, in various roles, with this public art piece.

Public Spaces Targeted

I am an American living and working in Göteborg, Sweden. My primary goal is to begin by building one sculpture and present it to the public within a space along Göteborg's harborfront area. This area is currently being "reclaimed" by creating a large tunnel system in which the city's main transportation artery will be diverted. Plans for the area above the tunnel include public spaces and parks. My secondary goal is to create copies of the sculpture for other venues both in Europe & the United States.

Message

The message I want to give through this sculpture is really quite simple: in a world where hatred and mistrust are beginning to be the norm instead of the exception, examine within yourself how you fit into the world and how, within the context of your belief system (if needed), you can help to make our global society a more nurturing, tolerant, and peaceful one.

Since I was born into Christianity I need to explain the message that I am most definitely trying not to give through this piece. Namely, I do not want the piece to parlay that I have any feelings of one religion being better than the other or that one holds the higher moral ground, or is the "right" path to any sort of salvation.

To those critics who may not believe that I could be impartial to the religion into which I was born, I ask them to consider that I have looked at my own belief system with a very critical eye. It's easy for Westerners (largely of a Christian faith) to assume that all Muslims (practiced mostly by those of Arabic or Middle Eastern origins) are potential terrorists. To think from this narrow perspective and to alienate and hold prejudices against all Muslims is stupid and I have tried to not do this. Christians with such a narrow point of view should ask themselves if the Christian Crusaders of the 16th and 17th centuries could not have been considered the "terrorists" of their time by savagely slaying the "non-believers" all in the name of God.

Crusaders believed they were sanctioned by their God to do these evil things to the "heathens" just as al-Qaeda type terrorists are now being implored by their God to slay those of the "Zionist" empire. In no way am I condoning terrorist behaviour in any way. I mention these instances only to provide the reader with the thought that there is something wrong when extremist views begin to manifest themselves into despicable and hateful acts against humanity. Inhumane and catastrophic consequences follow when extremist views become popular and mainstream.

Sensible Citation

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.
               -Kahlil Gibran, The Voice of the Poet