Drifting Away will open Saturday September 27th, 2008 from 6:00-9:00 pm

The De Santos Gallery will present Drifting Away, a series of life-size glass photographs by Colombian artist and photographer Erika Diettes. The photographs, printed on large glass panels, display articles of clothing or objects belonging to missing victims of the Colombian armed conflict. Drifting Away will open Saturday September 27th, 2008 from 6:00-9:00 pm and will be on display until October 11th.

For decades, paramilitary and guerrilla forces in Colombia have been responsible for the disappearances and deaths of thousands of Colombian civilians. Their tortured and mutilated bodies are then often discarded into the rivers of Colombia.

Drifting Away is meant to draw attention and humanization to this complex and tragic conflict. In order to embody this situation, Diettes has borrowed items of clothing or personal objects from the victims’ families, who are sometimes reluctant to do so. She then submerged the clothing or belongings in turbulent water, photographed them, and printed the photographs onto glass panels. According to Diettes, the panels are displayed standing upright, like “translucent tombstones in a cemetery”.

To properly convey the severity of her subject, Diettes has researched and toured areas of Colombia that experience a great deal of violence. She has traveled to a variety of places to speak with the victims’ families. Because the bodies of the missing are often never recovered, Diettes has found that many of their loved ones are unable to properly experience the grief necessary for their loss. Diettes says the families clamor “not only for the respect for life, but also for the right to be able to bury their dead”.