In an installation called ‘A Grunt’s War Diary’, artist Folleh Tamba shares the experience of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan through drawings, sculpture, poetry, photography and entries from Tamba’s war diaries that are embedded with visual and audio.
A Grunt’s War Diary is a study of one man’s trauma. It was on display for two weeks in October at the William T. Kemper Art Gallery in the K-State student union.
When American-born Tamba was a child, his parents returned to their home in West Africa. Later, caught in the Liberian civil war, the family was forced to live in a refugee camp until the U. S. Marine Corps intervened.
When he was 18, his mother brought the family back to the United States where Tamba earned undergraduate and MFA degrees in film at Columbia College Chicago.
At age 26 he enlisted in the Marine Corps and became an infantry rifleman. He served in Iraq and completed four tours of duty.
A documentary film he directed, shot and produced called ‘Triangle of Death’ won the Founder’s Award at the GI Film Festival and several other awards in 2009.
For more information about ‘A Grunt’s War Diary’, visit the project website at http://www.555c.org/index.php/art-trauma/what-is-war/item/251-a-grunt-s-war-diary/251-a-grunt-s-war-diary.
