Veterans use their military uniforms to create artwork and heal hidden wounds
A group of Portland-area veterans is preparing to dismantle the uniforms its members wore while serving in the military – first, by shredding the fabric with scissors and box cutters, and then by beating the strips of cloth into an unrecognizable pulp.
But they aren’t trying to desecrate their uniforms.
They’re reclaiming them.
Coping with the brutal violence and hardship of war can take many forms, but as the United States loses between 18 and 22 veterans a day to suicide and many more to substance abuse, finding healthy ways to cope continues to be crucial.
Across the country, veterans are finding that through art and storytelling, they can embark on their journey toward recovery. They are coming together to publically share their experiences, and in some cases, they’re completely transforming their uniforms in a beautifully symbolic exercise of reclamation.
It began in 2007 when Drew Cameron, an Iraq war veteran, and Drew Matott, a paper artist, co-founded the Combat Paper Project in San Francisco. Since then, the organization has conducted workshops worldwide, helping to heal veterans through the process of turning their military uniforms into paper. The paper then serves as a base for screen prints, sculpture, bookmaking and poetry.
For veterans, the act of cutting up the cloth that clung to their bodies as they fought, sweated and struggled through military service, is a way of releasing emotions tied to that part of their past. Turning that cloth into their own artistic expression is a way of reclaiming the uniform and, for some, reclaiming a part of themselves.
Cameron says the underlying premise of Combat Paper is to bring together the veteran and nonveteran communities, and he’s made the project his life’s work. For the past eight years he says he’s traveled the country, visiting prisons, military bases, museums and universities, teaching thousands of veterans how to transform their uniforms.
In April 2015, Combat Paper Project will take part in a series of free events in Portland, including an art talk, exhibits, a storytelling event with local veterans and an interactive art project where spectators can watch Cameron and other veterans create paper from the fibers of uniforms.
Six student veterans and active service members at Portland State University will participate in the Combat Paper process with Cameron during his Portland visit. The exercise is part of a series of storytelling workshops that will culminate with a free, storytelling performance on April 22 2015 at 7 p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student Ballroom at PSU. Their transformed uniforms will be on display at the event “Veterans’ Voices.”
Performance organizer Ryan Stroud has taught several performers who have appeared on the widely-acclaimed program, The Moth Radio Hour, for other performances including the National Storytelling Festival, and he says “Veterans’ Voices” will be of the same caliber.
“It will be punchy, apt and personal,” says Stroud. “The audience will gasp and they will sigh. It will be an emotional experience.”
A veteran and storyteller himself, Stroud says that through all the performances he’s choreographed, one common thread among the participants is a deep, underlying need to tell their story.
This is true for Matt Geiger, a Navy veteran who served in counter-terrorism. He says it’s important that civilians hear stories straight from the mouths of those who’ve served, which is why he signed up to take part in the project.
“If we leave it to the media and Hollywood, those are the stories that will resonate with people,” he says.
When he and his veteran friends watched the 2014 blockbuster, “American Sniper,” he says they noticed things in the film that civilians would not.
“It applies glamour to service – people think, ‘Oh look at this badass Navy SEAL,’” he says. “It’s framed very differently than the stories I have, and the stories that my friends have.”
Geiger was the one of the last to sign up for the project and discovered he would be transforming his uniform into paper art just moments before speaking with Street Roots.
But it didn’t shake him. He says he’s curious about the process, and not at all nervous or hesitant about cutting up his uniform.
“I’m not sure why, but I’ve been holding on to my uniforms since 2008,” he says. “Other than wearing them to paint my apartment, they’re not much use.”
PSU student and veteran Sarah Garland hopes telling her story, which she says is both “disgusting and humorous at the same time,” will give civilians a better understanding of veterans’ perspectives.
“It’s about giving people something to connect to,” she says. “Events like this help to bridge the gap – and there’s definitely a gap.”
Some veterans who participated in Cameron’s papermaking process say it served as a lifeline when they were feeling isolated and depressed because it connected them with other veterans going through the same emotions, and it gave them a positive way to express themselves.
“It’s all chance. Let’s say someone has just gone through a terrible couple of years, and then – just by chance – they happen to find a group of people who are making art together,” says Cameron. “And for whatever reason, in the person’s mind, something clicks with them, and they find they have this whole new realization within themselves – hey, that’s fantastic!”
Combat Paper Project in Portland: All events are free
April 7, 2015: 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Artist Talks
Veteran artists Drew Cameron, Jesse Albrecht and Aaron Hughes discuss their works
Oregon College of Art and Craft Centrum Gallery, 8245 SW Barnes Rd., Portland Oregon 97225
April 8, 9 and 10, 2015: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Living Installation
Interact with veteran artists as they create Combat Paper
511 Gallery at Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design, 511 NW Broadway, Portland Oregon 97209
April 11: 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Pop-up Combat Paper Art Show and Readings
Featuring works created at the living installation at 511 Gallery, Celebrate People’s History: Iraq Veterans Against the War portfolio, This Just In…Endless War, talks from local veteran artists and poetry from Warrior Writers
Ash Street Projects, 524 SE Ash St, Portland Oregon 97214
April 22, 2015: 7 p.m.
Veterans’ Voices
An evening of true stories from PSU’s Veteran Community accompanied by a showing of their Combat Paper
Portland State University Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, 1825 SW Broadway, Portland Oregon 97201
