Counting the Uncounted – a drawing consisting of 10,219 lines – is a visual representation and account of unrecorded victims of war. Each line was counted while drawn and stands for one human being.
Departing from the shocking variability between estimates of civilian casualties of the Iraq conflict, Counting the Uncounted is a symbolic estimate of the innumerable mass of people who inevitably are not counted. The graphic outcome was influenced in part by the variety of formats and displays of war-related information and data. And the process of counting while drawing one line at the time, became an extremely reflective action –almost meditative – that helped me assimilate the magnitude of the devastation of war, as well as to better visualize and acknowledge one human loss at the time.
The drawing was completed in 8 stages. On every 100 lines drawn, I made a small pencil mark. At the end of each drawing session I counted the marks and annotated the total amount on the left side margin. The following photos show four of the six drawing stages.
The Process
