ASU Herberger College School of Art Faculty:
2006-2007 Exhibition

April 14 through September 9, 2007

JOHN RISSEEUW

John Risseeuw 
Children of War, 2005
Woodcut and letterpress on variable, stenciled handmade paper.
The paper pulps include fibers representing traditional Angolan exports (cotton, sisal, coffee sacks) along with Angolan landmine victims’ clothing and shredded currencies of mine-producing countries.
20 ¼ x 10", Edition 33
Courtesy of the artist

John Risseeuw

Children of War is part of an ongoing project that began as a sabbatical research project in 2001-2002.  It explores landmines and their devastating affects on victims.  The UN estimates that more than 100 million may be deployed in 62 nations—one mine for every 50 humans on Earth.  Every 15 minutes, somebody steps on a landmine.  These "hidden killers" pose a constant threat long after the guns of war have silenced.

The project involves hand-making paper and printing landmine images, facts and stories of survivors and victims on it.  The paper is made of articles of clothing from landmine victims (something the person had worn, not from the accident itself), plants from landmine locations, and the currencies of nations that make or have made landmines. 

In 1996, I made a similar piece about the world arms trade printed on paper made from clothing of victims of armed conflict mixed with the recycled currency of the top ten arms-exporting nations.  This piece has been especially effective in impacting viewers. I have found that the paper made for Children of War and other landmine prints has been even more powerful.

This project includes landmine-related clothing, plants, facts and photographs from Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Iraq, Mozambique and Nicaragua.  I continue to seek contacts in other nations where landmines devastate civilian populations, as well as with American military veterans who are mine victims.  Future contacts may provide materials from Armenia, Afghanistan, Uganda and India. 

The Paper Landmine Print Project seeks to increase public awareness of the devastation caused by landmines and to increase financial support of the organizations that assist the victims.  Proceeds from the sale of this work are donated to the Landmine Survivors Network, Cambodian Handicraft Association for Landmine and Polio Disabled, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Mines Advisory Group Adopt-A-Minefield, Handicap International and other agencies that have helped me in my journey.

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