Aaron J. Hughes was pulled out of his undergraduate work at the University of Illinois in January of 2003 when he received orders to deploy to Iraq as a truck driver with the 1244th Illinois Army National Guard. Within the first three months of his deployment, everything that he understood about himself and the world had crumbled. Since his deployment - a time filled with anxiety, destruction, and hate - he has been seeking out metaphors, poetics, and moments of beauty that construct new languages and meanings out of personal and collective trauma. Hughes' projects attempt to dismantle the dehumanizing effects of systems of oppression, and in so doing transform individuals and society.
Website
In Collection:
Claremont Colleges Library, Honnold/Mudd Special Collections
War is TraumaDartmouth College, Rauner Library
AhmedThe Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Ahmed