Memories of war

Grand Valley's Art Gallery begins the school year with an exploration of a subject that is at once familiar and foreign to most Americans: the phenomenon of war.

Renee Zettle-Sterling interviewed war veterans as a starting point for the exhibition, Engaging Memory: Contemporary Interpretations of War. Her resulting three-dimensional 'metal mouthpieces' ¿ so named not only because they give voice to veterans' experiences, but because they are actually designed to be held in the mouth ¿ form the basis of the exhibit, on display now through September 27.

The 12 bronze, copper, brass and silver mouthpieces ¿ which she calls 'actualities' ¿ represent veterans' responses when asked to talk about their war experiences, said Zettle-Sterling.

'The mouthpieces either act as corks to stop the flow of memory, or they function as repositories and even a catalyst for memory,' she said.

One, 'Actuality #8, shows welded toy soldiers pouring from a faucet in a tangled, sometimes dismembered heap. In another, 'Actuality #1,' soldiers' letters and pictures are arranged on an acetate pinwheel. Doilies share space with grenades in the displays. Above all, said Sterling-Zettle, whose father and grandfather are veterans, her intent was to be honest in the portrayals.

'The 'actualities' are really about the realities of war ¿ being lonesome, being homesick ¿ things that are down to earth and universal about war,' she said. 'I started this two years ago to memorialize these ordinary guys who are caught in extraordinary situations. I think what they do is amazing.'

Engaging Memory also includes letters from veterans mounted on plexiglass ¿ heart-wrenching to read as many of the young soldiers never made it home ¿ photographs, and an audio display of some of Zettle-Sterling's interviews with veterans.

The exhibition is explained more thoroughly in an essay by Kim Theriault, assistant professor of art and design, printed on the back of posters available at the gallery. The poster also lists accompanying lectures held at the Art Gallery:

Sept. 11, 7 p.m.: 'Traumatic Pasts: War, Psychological Wounds and the 20th Century,' by Dr. Jason Crouthamel.
Sept. 18, 7 p.m.: 'The Good War: The Cultural Memory and Moral Meaning of World War II,' Dr. Paul Murphy.
Sept. 25, 7 p.m.: 'Re-Membering Vietnam: War, Trauma, and the Phenomenon of the Wall,' by Dr. Kim Theriault.