Three Landscapes

Three Landscapes
Printed Chiffon
Pages Cafe, Bird Library

The city of Syracuse is home to over 1,000 Karenni Refugees from Southern Myanmar (previously known as Burma).

The Karen are an indigenous civilization that has resided in the hills of Burma for more than 10,000 years. During WWII a group of Burmese nationalists aided Japan in invading British-controlled Burma, killing thousands of Karen in the process. In 1947, after the dissemination of Japanese rule, the Burmese nationalist drafted a constitution without the consent of the Karen and persecution continued. Since 1949, the Karen National Union has waged war against Burma in attempt to gain independence and/or establish a federal government. In the 1980's Burma was taken over by a military dictatorship which retains power to this day. For the past 22 years this military government has been exterminating all Karen Peoples within the national borders. Each year thousands of Karen cross the river to Thailand where they wait in refugee camps in the mountains until a select few earn relocation to the western world.

To many of these refugees, Syracuse has become a third home, and third landscape to which they must adjust. The first layer of this piece features four strips of chiffon with photographs of the Karen in the native land. The second layer of thirteen strips features all three refugee camps in Thailand where over 600,000 Karenni currently reside. The third layer of this piece is the window itself through which one can see the landscape of Syracuse University, a climate and geography that is utterly unfamiliar to the Karen.

By superimposing these three landscapes, the viewer is given a window to another world, an alien experience similar to that which a Karenni experiences each time he looks out of his window at a Syracuse winter.