White Undershirts
White undershirts hanging from wooden poles.
When American troops entered Baghdad in the first week of April 2003, the Iraqi people found themselves in a state of uncertainty. Daily life had to continue despite the presence of military forces in the streets. People had to leave their homes, buy food, and navigate an unfamiliar reality.
In an effort to ensure their safety, many sought a visible gesture of neutrality and non-confrontation. Some carried white clothing, white keffiyehs[i], while others instinctively turned to their white undershirts as a universal signal of passivity.
This installation features numerous white undershirts hanging from wooden poles, fluttering in an ambiguous state neither fully at rest nor in motion.
[i] The keffiyeh (Arabic: كوفية, also known as a (ya)shmagh يشماغ, ghutrah (غترة), is a traditional headdress typically worn by Arab men made of a square of cloth (“scarf”), usually cotton, folded and wrapped in various styles around the head.
