Artist's Stark Reminder Of "American Kills"

By Nicole Belle — November 17, 2010

'the counting of dead soldiers outside my studio was long and surprisingly eerie; it was hard to forget that every brush stroke was a soldier who had died the previous year. a lot of people stopped to read the mural and were immediately impressed by the reality portrayed. most of them seemed quite shocked and approached me to ask if what I was painting was real. I tried to explain that I simply wished to create a physical image that could capture people's imagination, creating awareness of the current numbers in death, war and the infinite discrepancy between the resources and energies destined to fight and protect soldiers at war versus the energies invested in protecting their mental health and stability.'- SR

Every week, I list the names of the service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. My grandfather was a high-ranking officer in the Air Force. Whether or not you agree with their mission, I consider it honoring my grandfather's dedication to the military to treat the sacrifices made by these service members and their families with the respect they deserve.

But for as much as I view my In Memoriam posts as an obligation to never forget the ultimate sacrifice these men and women made--and the holes they left in their surviving families' lives--I know that I only am giving the tip of the iceberg. I can't account for the deaths of Afghans, as heartlessly, no one has started a count of that, unlike Iraq Body Count. And to my knowledge, suicides among service people are not counted in the official casualty count. Many occur on leave or after active duty, which make their accounting difficult at best. But make no mistake, it's happening and on a more frequent basis the longer these occupations drag on.

Struggling with sharp increases in suicides among U.S. military forces, the Pentagon is joining a new national effort to reduce the number of Americans who take their own lives.[..]

More than 1,100 members of the armed forces killed themselves from 2005 to 2009, and suicides have been rising again this year.

Artist Sebastian Errazuriz hasn't forgotten those service members. On the outside of his Brooklyn studio, Errazuriz has been marking the suicides of the service members, as compared to the official casualty count.

'American Kills' by Chilean-born New York based artist Sebastian Errazuriz is a public installation showcasing the suicide rates of US soldiers. After searching on official war sites on the internet, he accidentally found out that 2 times more American soldiers had died in 2009 by committing suicide than those killed during that same year in the war in Iraq; an alarming comparison that Errazuriz had personally never read or heard about before.

"When I first found the overall statistics summed the 304 suicides by US soldiers during 2009, I was shocked. I tried to find a number to compare that statistic. To my surprise, the suicide statistic doubled the total of 149 US soldiers that had died in the Iraq War during 2009 and equaled the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan."

Errazuriz's first instinct was to post the statistic on Facebook, dumbfounded by the lack of response and interest, he bought can of black paint and decided to 'post' the news in the real world on his own wall outside his studio in Brooklyn. Equipped with a ladder, he marked a black strip for every dead soldier, until both the suicide rates and war rates occupied the entire wall and were registered as a single image. (Text edited for clarity-NB)

It's a sobering reminder that there are far more casualties to this "war" than just what the media tells us. If you know of a military person in need of help, please refer them to the VA's Suicide Prevention Hotline (courtesy of IAVA)

The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has founded a national suicide prevention hotline to ensure veterans in emotional crisis have free, 24/7 access to trained counselors.

If you need help now, please dial 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and press "1" to be routed to a professional counselor at a VA call center.