Hughes Art Exhibit at KCC

“Dies irae, But I Was Looking at the Permanent Stars,” by Aaron Hughes. –Photo submitted.

“Requiem aeternam, Anthem for Doomed Youth,” by Aaron Hughes. –Photo submitted.

A new art exhibit at Kankakee Community College features the work of Aaron Hughes and centers on various reflections of war.

“Poetry Despite/Music Despite (Eternal War Requiem)” is a multi-media exhibit that will be on display at KCC until February 24, in the lower level gallery of Miner Memorial Library.

The exhibit “connects artists across time and place, from World War I to the ‘Global War on Terror,’ from the U.S. to Iraq,” Hughes said. “These connections acknowledge the recurring traumas of war and, conversely, the human connections that happen despite the pain.”

The exhibit was first put together by Hughes in 2019, following the 100th anniversary of the first Armistice Day and the end of World War I on November 11, 1918.

Hughes is an artist, curator, organizer, teacher, anti-war activist, and Iraq War Veteran living in Chicago. He works collaboratively in diverse spaces and media to create meaning out of personal and collective trauma, deconstruct systems of oppression, and seek liberation. Working through an interdisciplinary practice rooted in drawing and printmaking, Hughes develops projects that often utilize popular research strategies, experiment with forms of direct democracy, and operate in solidarity with the people most impacted by structural violence.

The “Poetry Despite/Music Despite (Eternal War Requiem)” exhibit was created through collaboration with Karim Wasfi, Kevin Basl, Dunya Mikhail, Carlos Sirah, and the Syrian Kings, a hip-hop group featuring Ahmed and Hussein, and Nate Sandberg.

KCC is at 100 College Drive in Kankakee, south of downtown Kankakee. Exhibit hours are 7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 7:30 a.m. – 4 p.m., on Fridays. The library gallery will close at 5 p.m. December 19 and 20, and from noon December 21 until January 2.