Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan

By: Megan Fair

Windows and Mirrors is a traveling exhibit that provides an opportunity to see ourselves in depictions of the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of artists and children. The exhibit includes 45 unique 4-foot by 6-foot panels created by artists memorializing Afghan civilian casualties, alongside images about living with war collected from Afghan schoolchildren.
The Windows and Mirrors Exhibit was in Greensboro from March 25- May 8. Megan Fair, AFSC intern and lead coordinator of the Exhibit shares her final reflections of Windows and Mirrors.

Window and Mirrors might have left Greensboro but this is definitely a situation in which the old adage “gone but not forgotten” applies. Yes the lingering posters and pending reports is a constant reminder that those murals were hanging on those now bare walls. But what has really kept the exhibition in the forefront of my mind are the reflections in the guest book and the conversations with community members, the knowledge that my mind is not the only one in which these images remain.
But what do we do with these impressions loitering in our consciousness? Do we write a line of poetry here, wipe a tear away there and go about our lives, moved but not moving? Does being content with only signing our names to a postcard cheapen what we experienced in front of each piece of art? These are tough questions that only lead into another question, what else can we do?

Windows and Mirrors was never intended as a onetime event, it was not meant to come and go leaving minimal effects like a mouse in the pantry. This exhibition was more like the metaphorically bull in the china shop, shattering preconceived notions and challenging mindsets of ignorance and unawareness. These pieces should not be put back together but can they be part of a new puzzle?

And that is what I am struggling with in the aftermath of Windows and Mirrors. The quote that has been traveling with the murals reads “Windows on a war torn country are also mirrors reflecting back on our own identity as a nation at war”. I’ve looked through these windows and seen myself in the mirror that they become. I ‘m ashamed to say I see myself complacent, saying that I have done enough to amplify the voices of the suffering. But as any recovering addict will tell you, the first step is admitting your problems. So in a way Windows and Mirrors has put me on the path to recovery, to recovering knowledge of latent injustices, to recovering a desire to make the sacrifices necessary to challenge those injustices, to recovering a love for all humanity over myself and the advantages of my life.

So I didn’t actually answer the question of what we do after Windows and Mirrors, what do we do once we’ve had our eyes and hearts opened to the plight of so many. I didn’t answer this question because that is a question that can only be answered by one person: you.

You can view Megan Fair’s final reflections on the Windows and Mirrors exhibition here