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15th February 2003

Researcher: Kelcy Davenport

Sustained drawing performance (Duration: 40 hours)
170cms x 120 cms
Google Image, Data Projector, Pencil

On 15th February 2003 people mobilised in more than 600 cities across the globe to protest the imminent invasion of Iraq. This became known as ‘the largest protest event in human history’. It even made the Guinness Book of Records.

On 20th March 2003, a coalition of the willing (USA, UK, Australia and Poland) invaded Iraq.

During the exhibition I spent 40 hours in the gallery space focusing on the historical internet archive of this ‘largest protest event in human history’. I wanted to inhabit that time and space before the invasion, when millions of people came together in solidarity with the people of Iraq, when perhaps there could have been the potential to affect a different course of action.

Using a video projector to cast found images from Google on the wall, I attempted to revisit and reanimate the memory of this event, re-tracing the historical moment.

This sustained performance resulted in a large-scale, multi-layered pencil drawing on a wall just off the main gallery which hosted the rest of the sustainability art exhibition.