PRAYER FLAGS FOR PEACE

The traditional colors of the Bosnian flag are combined with the idea of Tibetan prayer flags. I used images from my own travels in Sarajevo and Bosnia, and from historical sources in museums, of posters, floor plans, and maps. Superimposed over these graphics are images of Sarajevo Roses (the filling in of mortar shell imprints from the war with red resin) each one hand painted in red and offering up another type of prayer to peace. Each rose is a meditation in itself on the act of ritual and repetition, as well as a graphic representation of a real event, with lives changed and lost.

The flags are hung in a circular arrangement, to reference a central meeting point, a place to come together, a place of shelter and refuge. They echo the shape of the Sarajevo Roses, mosque ceilings and other Bosnian archetypes. There are a total of 24 strings, one for every hour of the day. The number of 360 flags is the average number of mortar shells that rained down on Sarajevo each day during the siege. Prayer Flags for Peace expresses the importance of remembered and recorded history while offering hope and positive images for a future of peace.

Exhibited at Redline Denver in November 2016 and at the History Museum, Sarajevo in February 2017.

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Trine Bumiller | Prayer Flags for Peace