Lost

Lost reflects the experience of war on children in Baidoa. Since 1990 Somalia has been the site of an intensive civil war which Australian Peace keepers have been working to keep at bay. Baidoa, one of Somalia's largest cities has been one of the cities worst affected by the decade of fighting between rival clans. Somalia is one of the world's poorest nations with 25% of children not reaching their fifth birthday. As well as the fighting, Baidoa has also been hit by severe drought and has been referred to in the past as the "city of death". The 12 panels that make up the piece Lost use words and images that are repeated over and over again on each panel, but in different combinations, in a deconstruction of the media event that Somalia has become in the West. The piece also reflects on the many children in similar circumstances in Baidoa, as well as around the world. Lost was a work that was made in conjunction with another work that the Memorial holds Pieta Baidoa and images from this work are also used in Lost. It shows a silhouette of a mother holding a child taken from a Time magazine, which then has the names of countries effected by war etched over it. The piece takes on the layout and name of the famous composition of Christ lying dead in his mother's arms and presumably connotes that the child held in the arms of the silhouetted figure is also dead. The other images used in Lost are magazine cut outs of Baidoa children, one running the others looking wide eyed at the viewer, which all could easily be taken from the photojournalism tradition. Mixed with these images are words from a child-like poem, which appears to capture a sense of death and a peaceful afterlife: When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone. They shall have stars at elbow and foot.