Kent State Condolences
Dublin Core
Title
Kent State Condolences
Subject
Kent State
Description
Two identical posters, yet contrasting in color, depict a skull and cross bones. This symbolizes the deaths of those students at Kent State and establishes a sort of memento mori. The top two bones read “Kent” and “Chicago” while the bottom two bones read “Cambodia” and “Vietnam”. “Kent” and “Chicago” read atop the posters as Chicago students mainly protested and related to the events of Kent State. Students also portray their emotions towards the actions ongoing in Cambodia and Vietnam. The single piece of white construction paper has black paint stenciled on top of itself while the other piece of black construction paper has white paint stenciled on top of itself. As stated by John Fitzgerald O’Hara in Kent State/May 4 and Postwar Memory, we must now “preserve the unsettled aspects of the May 4 case, including its many suggestions of malfeasance and conspiracy” through art, memorial, and inevitably protest.
The Kent State shooting is an event that shook the whole country. Students all across the nation stepped out of school to protest the shootings and to pay respects to their fellow classmates that were slain. Columbia College Chicago decided to construct a special edition collection of prints and posters to commemorate the fallen students. In this work, Skulls and crossbones are silkscreened onto a thick piece of paper with four locations on the bones marking major points of interest in this event. The date these grim posters were created is unknown but might possibly be in the same year of the shooting (1970). “The "truth" about Kent State remains an omnipresent but elusive goal of May 4 narratives.” (John Fitzgerald O'Hara).
The Kent State shooting is an event that shook the whole country. Students all across the nation stepped out of school to protest the shootings and to pay respects to their fellow classmates that were slain. Columbia College Chicago decided to construct a special edition collection of prints and posters to commemorate the fallen students. In this work, Skulls and crossbones are silkscreened onto a thick piece of paper with four locations on the bones marking major points of interest in this event. The date these grim posters were created is unknown but might possibly be in the same year of the shooting (1970). “The "truth" about Kent State remains an omnipresent but elusive goal of May 4 narratives.” (John Fitzgerald O'Hara).
Creator
Columbia College Chicago Students
Source
Kent State, College Archives & Special Collections, Columbia College Chicago
Publisher
College Archives & Special Collections, Columbia College Chicago.
Date
[no text]
Contributor
[no text]
Rights
“The oral histories are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. “ All rights remain with the creators.
Relation
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Format
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Language
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Type
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Identifier
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Coverage
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Files
Collection
Citation
Columbia College Chicago Students, “Kent State Condolences,” Protest Art, accessed May 13, 2024, https://protest.omeka.net/items/show/52.