OAKFIELD: Carol Morrison is hoping to showcase the injustices done around the world through works of art in an upcoming exhibit.
Morrison will be displaying her artwork and copies of letters she and a small group of dedicated community volunteers known as the Oakfield Amnesty International Action Circle have written on behalf of victims of injustice.
The show, which began Feb. 25 and runs until March 28, is taking place at the Ralph and Rose Chiodo Harbourside Gallery at Pier 21, in Halifax. It will be open Tuesday to Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The opening reception for the exhibit, which will feature 10 pieces of art, will take place on March 6, beginning at 2 p.m.
“We’d love to see people at the reception,” Morrison, an organizer of the event, said. “It’s a free event and people can take in the show at the immigration gallery overlooking Halifax Harbour.”
Among the portraits to be exhibited include Alsadiq Siddiq Adam Abdulla, a Sudanese businessman residing in the United Kingdom who is missing in the United Arab Emirates; Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam, a journalist imprisoned in Sri Lanka and many others.
Morrison said the project began about two or three years back when she heard about Amnesty International, but was unsure of how it worked.
“I found that anybody could form an action circle, which is basically just a group of people that writes letters on behalf of victims of injustice,” she added.
After finding this out, the next step was to find a group of friends who were willing to help her out. Morrison received a $6,000 Nova Scotia Creation Grant from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage a couple years back.
“Fortunately for me I’ve had a dedicated group that’s willing to do this,” she said. “We now have 10 cases, which is 10 portraits and all the sets of letters that have been written on their behalf. We’d write letters to the head of the justice department, their representative in Canada or anybody else that might be in authority that could help their situation.”
Morrison is hopeful the exhibit will allow more people to become interested in what’s going on outside their community and in other countries.
“The whole purpose of the portrait is to try and bring these people to life because we tend to think of people in Iran, Congo or wherever as being somebody we don’t relate to,” she said. “I was very much hoping that these portraits will help to bring these people to life. One thing we’ve come to realize these last couple of years is that the conditions these people face is so unlike anything we could experience.”
As an immigrant herself, originally from England, Morrison hopes the project will raise the eyebrows of people in this country to not only be aware of their own surroundings, but what is taking place outside Canada’s borders.
“On the American continent we seem to be very isolated from what’s going on in the rest of the world,” she explained. “I’m hoping this will raise awareness of what’s happening in these other countries and maybe persuade more people to become involved with Amnesty International or organizations like this that are really trying to promote the causes of these people.”
phealey@enfieldweeklypress.com