Requiem for the Innocent: El Paso and Beyond

Requiem for the Innocent: El Paso and Beyond addresses the tragedy of the mass shooting at the Walmart in El Paso on August 3, 2019, a hate crime in which twenty-three people were killed. There are several distinct iterations of the work: a book, a limited edition set of fine art prints, a gallery exhibition, a film, concerts, and talks. The book, Requiem for the Innocent: El Paso and Beyond, published by GFT Books, features alternating pages of Willis’s photographs of spontaneous memorials created in the wake of the shooting alongside Behn’s poems, with a link to Rubinstein’s music. The handmade collector’s limited–edition of boxed fine art prints with text on vellum has been placed in numerous university rare book collections.  

The exhibition was shown at Gallery Kayafas in Boston in fall 2020; the artists’ panel is now a part of Kayafas Gallery’s Artist Conversation series. Future exhibitions are under active consideration. The film has garnered international honors as a finalist in numerous international film festivals. It was also on display at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center March-June 2021. The artists participated in an opening talk there and a zoom tour and discussion about the show.

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Robin Behn, CARI Faculty Fellow and Professor of English

 

John Willis, Professor of Photography at Rhode Island School of Design

 

Matan Rubinstein, Associate Professor of Music and Sound Studies at Emerson College

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