The thesis exhibition of final year, graduate students enrolled in the Mount Royal School of Art (Multidisciplinary MFA) program, curated by Professor Luca Buvoli. Including works by Sanah Brown-Bowers, Meg Clerc, Paul Emmanuel, Trisha Gupta, Yuanwei Huang, Teddi Kabler, William Okaily, Grusha Sabharwal, Erhan Us and Jeehee Yoo. Untethered (2024) was featured in this exhibition.

Artist statement

At present, the United States finances, trains and arms soldiers in the Lebanese Armed Forces. My mixed European/Lebanese heritage has compelled me to spend the last two years interviewing retired and active-duty Lebanese and U.S. soldiers deployed to the ‘Middle East’ region. In these conversations, I was struck by each soldier’s account of the camaraderie between ‘battle buddies’ and surprised that the older veterans spoke of a profound sense of loss when returning to civilian life. This traumatic experience of detachment resonated strongly with me when a U.S. paratrooper gave me his parachute. He recounted how he had acquired it after retiring from active duty in 2008, only to discover that all 30 of its suspension lines had been severed. The accompanying two original drawings comprise a ‘foot portrait’ of a U.S. paratrooper and a ‘hand portrait’ of a Lebanese active-duty infantryman. Both men cannot be identified for various reasons, but I was driven to record the intimacy of our conversations in some way. They both allowed me to photograph and draw their feet and hands, so as to protect their anonymity. Each image is scratched by hand with a steel blade into a dark background, on a piece of cotton rag. The U.S. paratrooper’s feet are scratched into a layer of black boot polish because to this day, airborne troops still buff their black leather, ceremonial ‘jump boots’ using these materials to signify excellence and professionalism. The Lebanese infantryman’s hands however, are scratched into a layer of gunpowder residue from an M16 assault rifle and ammunition supplied by the United States.

Acknowledgements

Luis Rosa Valentin, Dan Kasza, Carlos Muños, Katinka Hooyer, Hannah Challita, Suzanne Challita, Carine Challita, Anthony Emmanuel and Peter Emmanuel.

To my parents