Do Not Know Thyself

Model Image

Brick Wall (1978), from the Oxydationen series." border="0" height="263" width="180"> Vera Lehndorff and Holger Trülzsch, Brick Wall (1978), from the "Oxydationen" series.

The fragmented personae of Veruschka.

by Robin Rice

Except in those brief Kafka-esque transitions between sleep and waking, from moment to moment we usually "know" who we are. But, as Vera Lehndorff, currently showing her work at the Arcadia University and Moore College galleries, says, "People are linked. We are not separate. We are more linked than we think."

One might suppose that Lehndorff's work would focus on her personal uniqueness. In a way it does -- through a kind of negation. She is a cult figure, the iconic 1960s model Veruschka. Veruschka's most celebrated appearance was in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blow-Up, which will be shown Fri., March 28, at 8 p.m. at Moore.

As an artist, Lehndorff has devoted over 30 years to exploratory deconstructions of her own identity. Her relationship to her surroundings is relentlessly questioned through a kind of fragmentation which sometimes requires her to merge into a physical context and on other occasions, to inhabit alternate personas. Her oeuvre suggests that identity itself is both ambiguous and quixotic.

"Oxydationen," images from a 1970 to 1986 collaboration with photographer Holger Trülzsch, will be on view at Arcadia's gallery for a few more days. It is an important complement to the video and digital print installations from 1988 to 2001 in Moore's Goldie Paley Gallery. The "Oxydationen" photographs record trompe l'oeil transformation of Lehndorff's body into a peeling brick wall or heavy wooden doorway. These illusions are so impressive that amazement tends to obscure analysis. Many were taken in an abandoned fish auction house in a suburb of Hamburg, Germany -- its aura of damp and decay a sort of metaphor for the human aging process.

A video documents photography sessions in progress. We see Lehndorff in body paint gingerly stalking toward her designated context, then meticulously orienting her limbs so that painted details integrate with the background. She tucks her head to match shadows and, at last, closes her eyes, surrendering to her disappearance into an object. In another sequence, a white flower-painted teapot separates itself from an identical version in a tea set and floats off screen, as Lehndorff walks away from a still life.

Mounted on dark steel, the prints are severe, solemn and still. In contrast to the grid-based architecture of the steel-backed pictures, a large triptych of Lehndorff painted to merge with piles of cloth in an Italian recycling plant compositionally mimics abstract expressionist painting.

Three bodies of work blend in the installation at Moore. Burning City is a microcosm of destruction, recording the cremation of a model city built by Lehndorff from fragments of brick. Displayed in digitized stills glued to gallery walls and projected onto two screens, the rolling, fluttering flames could be borrowed from any evening newscast.

For the film Buddha Bum, Lehndorff played several characters in an urban environment (Brooklyn): a sky-blue Buddha seated on a rooftop, a young woman drifting against the brilliant acid yellows and greens of a real Tibetan temple and two vagrants, painted to partially merge with the sooty, graffiti-tagged wall under the Manhattan Bridge. The "camouflage" of these bums is a metaphor for the abandoned, invisible members of our society. Micha Waschke's music, played on a variety of instruments, occasionally suggests a human voice.

The structure of the film hints at cycles of aging, joy, suffering, anger, death and, perhaps, renewal, but there is no real story as such. The villainy of a government which fails its citizens is depicted here but so are the smiles of children and the serene compassion of Buddha. "Buddha said that everybody is a Buddha. We all potentially have the same Buddha nature. He is part of the city" for Lehndorff.

Historic disasters from Pompeii to Hiroshima are evoked in black-and-white photographs, "Ash Self-portraits." Each centers on Lehndorff's ash-coated head, pure as a Brancusi muse, as she lies on the sidewalk wrapped in a shawl, unconscious or dead. At a recent exhibition of this work at P.S. 1 in Queens, many related it to the events of 9/11. But its 1998 message is not anchored in time. Lehndorff observes, "We destroy so many things. It's part of life: sometimes good; sometimes bad. I don't moralize."

Prism-like images of a translucent plastic tent used to shield the artist as she prepares for her work appear in both exhibitions. A mundane emblem of transformation, its billowing light-filled planes cloak the mysteries of art, technology and nature.

In order to effectively deploy her avatar Veruschka, Lehndorff's appearance must be simultaneously pleasing and adaptively neutral. In all her art, subtle intelligence guides her in projecting the essence that animates the required persona. Surely Lehndorff's acquaintance with the transformations wrought by time, commerce and every manifestation of fortune inform a perspective which is at once spiritual, profoundly political and almost painfully intimate.

Nibble

Garra rufa, a fish used for treatment of skin diseases, nibble a hand of a participant during the Tokyo Electric Power Company's Aqua Summer Festa at TEPCO Ginza museum in Tokyo, August 13, 2007. (Reuters)

Little Joys

Amid Darfur's desperation, 'little joys'

• Story Highlights
• Field officer with World Food Program captures images of village and camp life
  
• More than 2.5 million have been displaced, driven into huge refugee camps
  
• Traditional market routes have been disrupted by the violence
  
• An estimated 200,000 have died in Darfur since 2003

By Porter Anderson
CNN

(CNN) -- When Diego Fernandez talks about the tens of thousands of Darfurians who huddle in southern Sudan's refugee camps, he speaks both as an aid-agency worker and as a witness with a camera.

Photographer Diego Fernandez of the World Food Program calls Darfurians' resilience "a triumph."

"They should have dignity and self-sufficiency," he said. "I mean, these people have been living on their own all their lives; cultivating, completely independent, and now they're just relying on humanitarian aid."

That's the field officer talking. Fernandez is charged by the United Nations' World Food Program with ensuring that food reaches the camps, transported in dust-eating Daimler trucks that grind along the baking supply routes between camps.

"But you see people still walking the markets" in larger towns and even in the refugee camps, he said. "Still eating outside, still laughing, children playing. It's quite interesting to see how life runs parallel to the conflict."

And that's the photo-journalist speaking, his camera at the ready. Watch an audio slide show and hear Diego Fernandez talk about conditions in Darfur »

Fernandez gets the high view when traveling in one of the helicopters that ferry personnel across contested terrain. And at ground level, he walks the terra-cotta sands, talking with elders, with children, with exhausted mothers and restless teens.

Most have been forced from their homes into the camps for safety and food. Many have travelled long distances.

"In some cases, it takes them ... up to a week, traveling from their villages to the camps," he said. These long journeys are made in high temperatures sometimes on foot. See a photo gallery of some of Diego Fernandez's images »

Once these displaced people, currently estimated to total some 2.5 million, reach the large camps, Fernandez said, they're in an environment completely unfamiliar to them. U.N. accuses Sudan militia of mass abduction and rape

And yet with good humor they scratch out a life for themselves in the camps and make the best of a bad situation.

Fernandez said he marvels at how people in the camps continue to pursue the "little joys" of life.

Their own pastoral communities, built expressly to accommodate the needs of the families who share the land, offer scant preparation for the squared-off lines, rumbling supply trucks, necessary regulations and noisy crowding of the refugee camps.

But the drive to preserve tokens of normal life, however small, are hard to defeat, according to Fernandez. Men gather to talk, women share chores, kids frame their days in friendship and play.

He saw this first, he said, when working in Iraq. Stationed in Baghdad with the Spanish Embassy prior to the start of the 2003 U.S. invasion, Fernandez said, he watched a population struggle to keep something of their routine intact, even as the attacks loomed.

"Iraqis started to store basic supplies at home in anticipation of the war -- water, flour, sugar, fuel, sure. But you could still see them working, walking in the streets."

In a region where news organizations are highly regulated and often find it dangerous to operate, photographing Darfurians requires special arrangements. Even aid officials like Fernandez must have proper permits to carry cameras.

"When you are in the field, when you're out in the bush," he said, "it tends to be much easier to find the photographs. And people are more easy about being photographed.

"But when you are in the big towns, sometimes it's more difficult. Sometimes people are not happy. Sometimes you are requested to show your permit to take pictures. If you have it, things are fine. If you don't have it, you can actually get into trouble."

Formerly a student in international economics at Madrid's Complutenese University, Fernandez joined the World Food Program mission in Sudan in 2004. He found then that while the displacement was well under way, getting aid to the people was tough. It still is.

"The camps are scattered all over the place, over a big area," he said.

"There are no roads -- no paved roads -- so to get all the food that we distribute every month to more than two million people. It's a big logistical challenge."

As a program officer, Fernandez must monitor the overall distribution of food. "We deliver the food to its final points of distribution. At some points of the year, this reaches almost half the population of Darfur, which is six million people.

"From time to time, the camps are closed. They just can't take more people. And there are still people arriving," Fernandez said. "We are still seeing displacement.

"When the rainy season comes, many areas become inaccessible without roads. The trucks cannot cross rivers."

Fernandez said one of the greatest complexities of the crisis is the effort of refugees to return to their villages, many of which have been destroyed in violence that does not always stem directly from the conflict between Khartoum and rebellious southern forces. U.N. triples Darfur peacekeepers

"Nomads are coming further into the South, for example," he said.

"They let their animals graze in the farms. That triggers conflict between the nomads and the farmers. It's very difficult to follow. It takes a long time in the area to understand what is going on."

But in the time he has spent focused on the place and its people, he said he's found Darfurians most impressive for their strength.

Fact Box

Sudan's Darfur region

Roughly one-third the population of the Darfur area, or 2.5 million people, have been displaced by conflict.

An estimated 200,000 people have died in Darfur either directly or indirectly as a result of the conflict which started in 2003.

Sudan has endorsed a U.N. resolution to send 26,000 peacekeepers to Darfur starting in October. It will be the U.N.'s largest peacekeeping operation.

U.N. force is to deploy attack helicopters to help deflect attacks by Arab janjaweed militias on villages.

Sources: World Food Program, The Associated Press

"They are very resilient and the way they face adversity is something unbelievable. I don't think I would be able to survive out there for more than a day in such conditions. They are very brave, and at the same time they are very hospitable. You never have a problem when you're out there," he said.

"That's one of the good things of working Darfur, is dealing with Darfurians. They're extremely kind and warm people."

Quick, where's my Ramen?

Giveaway: 'Instant emergency ramen kit'

"Instant Ramen Bosaishoku Kit"

The Japan Convenience Foods Industry Association is offering five lucky MDN readers an "Instant Ramen Bosaishoku Kit," an emergency package consisting of instant noodles and a kit of materials for cooking them.

"Considering its convenience and long shelf life, instant ramen can be a perfect stock food for disaster prevention. We've produced this special package to spread the idea of instant ramen as an effective emergency food, with the support of the Institute for Fire Safety and Disaster Preparedness," the association says.

The package contains:

-- Five servings of instant ramen noodles

-- Three 500-milliliter bottles of mineral water

-- A stainless cup

-- Solid fuel

-- A barbeque lighter

-- A pair of chopsticks

-- A wet towel

To apply for the giveaway, send a postcard with your address, name, age, sex, occupation and phone number to:

"Instant Ramen Bosaishoku Kit" Present (Mainichi Daily News) Gakari

DPR 2-16-7 Ginza Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8210

Note: The offer is open only to residents of Japan. The application deadline is Sept. 20. Winners will be selected at random and will receive the prize without prior announcement.

August 20, 2007

Killing the Buddha

"If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Arming Sudan

Sudan 'breaks Darfur arms embargo'

• Story Highlights
• Amnesty says Sudan's continues to violate a U.N. arms embargo in Darfur
  
• Human rights group urges U.N. to allow peacekeepers to seize weapons
  
• Amnesty says credible photos show breaches of arms embargo

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A human rights group said Thursday that Sudan's government continues to violate a U.N. arms embargo in Darfur and urged the United Nations to give its planned peacekeeping force for the region the authority to confiscate weapons from combatants.

Amnesty says this photo shows a Russian-supplied Mi-24 attack helicopter redeployed to El Geneina airport from Nyala, Darfur.

In its latest report on Darfur, the London-based Amnesty International published photographs it said were obtained from credible witnesses supporting the claim of arms embargo violations.

The photographs were taken in July and purportedly show military shipments at the Sudanese army airport in the West Darfur state capital of El Geneina, the group said.

One photograph shows Sudanese soldiers moving containers from an Antonov cargo plane onto military trucks and two others show Russian-supplied Mi-7 and Mi-24 attack helicopters at the airport, Amnesty said.

"Sudan flaunts its impudence of the U.N. arms embargo and peace agreements by persisting to send arms into Darfur," said Larry Cox, the group's director in the United States.

In 2005, the U.N. Security Council imposed a wide arms embargo on all parties in the conflict in Darfur, including the Sudanese government. It was a follow-up on a previous 2004 embargo that also included the government-armed janjaweed militia.

Brian Wood, a military expert at Amnesty's London offices, said that while there is no way of knowing what was in the photographed containers, the military aircraft at the El Geneina airport had arrived from Sudan's capital on flights that were not reported to or permitted by the U.N.

"And that means that those are violations of the Security Council arms embargo to Darfur," Wood told The Associated Press by telephone. "We have indicated that we know of similar flights with small arms and weapons to militia and armed groups that have attacked civilians in the past."

Amnesty's report also said air raids by Sudanese forces continued in Darfur, with strikes reported by the U.N. in North Darfur in late June. Sudanese forces also used Antonov aircraft for several bombing raids on South Darfur in August, near the town of Adila, the group said.

On July 31, the U.N. Security Council authorized the deployment of 20,000 peacekeepers and 6,000 civilian police in a joint U.N.-African Union operation for Darfur, which the Sudanese government had long resisted.

The peacekeeping mission is authorized to use force to protect and ensure freedom of movement for its own personnel and aid workers and to prevent armed attacks and protect civilians in Darfur.

But the U.N. resolution does not authorize the force to seize or collect arms.

"The U.N. Security Council must give U.N. peacekeepers the ability to remove weapons from all parties involved in the conflict," Cox said. "Otherwise, the ability to effectively protect civilians and usher in a lasting peace will remain elusive."

More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003, accusing it of discrimination.

Sudan is accused of retaliating by unleashing Arab militias, which are blamed for the worst atrocities against civilians in a conflict that has displaced more than 2.5 million people.

In a report issued Tuesday, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour's office detailed the rapes of dozens of Darfur women last year, saying they were sexually assaulted in front of each other, beaten with sticks and forced to cook and serve food to their attackers.

The report alleged Sudanese forces and militiamen subjected about 50 women to multiple rapes and other violence in an attack on the eastern Darfur village of Deribat in late December. It accused the Sudanese government of failing to investigate the rapes.

On Thursday, Sudan's justice minister lashed out at the report, calling it untrue and irresponsible. "This is a false report and it is clear to us that the human rights commissioner does not care about her credibility," Mohamed Ali al-Mardi told the AP.

He denied government soldiers had committed atrocities in Darfur and claimed the situation in the region had improved. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Wow Dude

http://www.bulletproofbaby.net/home%20page.html

You have to see this...

U.N. Accuses Sudan Militia of Rape

U.N. accuses Sudan militia of mass abduction and rape

• Story Highlights
• Report: About 50 women and children forced into "sexual slavery"
  
• Popular Defense Forces militia and the Abu Gasim faction to blame, report says
  
• Sudan denies mass rapes in Darfur

GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- The United Nations' human rights office on Tuesday accused forces allied with Sudan's government of mass abduction and rape of women and girls in Darfur, acts it said could constitute war crimes.

Its latest report, based on testimony from victims and witnesses, called on Khartoum to investigate reports that about 50 women were forced into "sexual slavery" after an attack on the rebel-held town of Deribat in South Darfur's Jebel Marra region last December.

The abductees, who included many children, were held for about one month, and beaten and raped repeatedly, often in front of each other, the report from the office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said.

"Witnesses indicated that the abduction, rape and other human rights violations that continued throughout the period were committed by the same group of men who conducted the actual attack," it said.

The report concluded that the Sudanese government bore responsibility for the abuses committed by the official Popular Defense Forces militia and the Abu Gasim faction. Sudan's army had provided air and ground support for the raids which resulted in 36 civilian deaths.

The U.N. report named three men as possibly sharing criminal responsibility for leading the attacks on Deribat, and the abductions and sexual abuse.

"A series of violations have been committed that constitute both violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Some of these may also constitute war crimes," it said.

"The government should issue immediate clear instructions to all troops under its command including PDF and other militias that rape and other forms of sexual violence will not be tolerated, that they constitute war crimes," it continued.

An estimated 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have fled their homes in Darfur since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in the vast western region in 2003.

Sudan denies mass rapes in Darfur. On Monday Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi said that reports by international rights groups on abuses were "criminal."

"All reports ... about genocide and mass rape are frivolous and obviated by malice," he told Reuters. "They are executing policies of other nations like the United States ... against Sudan."

The U.N. report said a "pattern of mass abduction" which began with the Darfur conflict, appeared to be ongoing. The report covers a six-month period ending in May 2007.

The victims in Deribat, who were mainly from the Fur tribe, may have been targeted because the Fur community in Jebel Marra has been perceived as sympathetic to Sudan Liberation Army rebels who stayed outside the 2006 Darfur peace deal, it said.

Jebel Marra region is a stronghold of Abdul Wahed Mohammed el-Nur, leader of a faction of one of the Darfur rebel groups. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.