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A mindfulness of hands, eyes, and heart: Peace Birds Project comes to Center for Peace through Culture

“For me, this project has started as a mindfulness movement, because if I’m looking at peace, I want to start it right here inside myself,” artist Mona Shiber told The Berkshire Edge.

Housatonic — Artists Mona Shiber and JuPong Lin will be bringing their Peace Birds Project to the Center for Peace through Culture starting on Saturday, February 1.

The artists have taken their art projects to other galleries throughout New England, including the 50 Arrow Gallery in Easthampton, Mass.

The idea behind the project is to create thousands of folded paper doves and cranes, one for every death in the Gaza Strip in the war between Israel and Hamas since it broke out on October 7, 2023. As of press time on Thursday, January 23, various media outlets report that there have been at least 47,300 people killed in the war.

“This project is a collaboration that has come out of our independent work as interdisciplinary artists,” Lin told The Berkshire Edge.

Lin was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States as a child, while Shiber’s parents are Palestinian. “On October 6, 2023, I was near the ocean and I spotted something on my way off of the rocks,” Shiber said. “It was a bouquet. I started to think about this bouquet, and I wondered, if this was a dream, what would it mean? It hit me that it was my ancestors speaking to me. Over time, I’ve heard all kinds of stories, from my parents having to leave their homes and so forth. I was contemplating how I can deal with the news and devastation of the lives lost in Israel.”

Shiber said that she was preparing for an open-studio artist event then, and she thought about creating symbols for peace. “When I was looking for peace symbols, birds kept coming up,” Shiber said. “That is when I reached out to JuPong about birds. I have seen images of paper doves and cranes, but I didn’t know how to fold them. JuPong has a background where she has folded thousands of birds, but I didn’t know that then. It seemed so appropriate that we would work with these two symbols of peace from our traditions.”

Doves have been a symbol for peace dating as far back as the fifth century in Greece, eventually being adopted over generations as an anti-war symbol.

According to the City of Hiroshima’s website, paper cranes are part of the ancient paper-folding tradition of origami. The connection between paper cranes and peace is historically traced back to the story of Sadako Sasaki, who was two years old when the United States bombed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. In 1954, nearly nine years after the bombing, she became ill and was eventually diagnosed with leukemia. As she tried to recover in the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital, she folded paper cranes believing that it would help her recover. After eight months in the hospital, she died from leukemia on October 25, 1955.

The story of Sadako has inspired many others to use paper cranes as a symbol of peace throughout the years, including both Shiber and Lin for the Peace Birds Project. “My parents grew up in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation,” Lin said. “My family are survivors of violence. There are layers of intergenerational violence and trauma that both me and Mona can relate to. When Mona came to meet with me about folding these birds, we shared a bit of our family stories and found some parallels. I say this with caution because I don’t want to make any equivalency between Taiwan and Palestine, but there are interesting parallels. They are both regions of the world that have never been recognized as nations. So there is a struggle for sovereignty, which often equates to a struggle for nationhood. It is also a struggle for the right to survive and live in your homelands. That’s the parallel that brought us all together.”

“For me, this project has started as a mindfulness movement, because if I’m looking at peace, I want to start it right here inside myself,” Shiber said. “When I fold paper, I can focus and see parts of the mind as I start with my frustration. I have had a series of concussions that have made folding challenging, but I realize that creating these peace birds is all about the mindfulness of hands, eyes, and heart, and then sharing that with others. It’s all so much about being right here.”

The Peace Birds art exhibit begins on Saturday, February 1, at 12:30 p.m., with a story circle and folding workshop. The opening reception for the exhibit will be at 4 p.m. A second-story circle and folding workshop will be held on Friday, February 14, at 2:30 p.m. The Center for Peace through Culture is located 137 Front Street in Housatonic. Visit the center’s website for more information.

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