by Heather Livingston

When the Faces of the Fallen exhibit opened March 22 at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, the entire staff of Washington, D.C.-based CORE architecture + design was there to witness the gathering of families, military personnel, and artists. As the exhibit designers and installation coordinators, they were also there to make sure everything went off without a hitch.

Faces of the Fallen was conceived as a way to “express our collective gratitude and common grief” for America’s sons and daughters who have lost their lives fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Inspired by a 2004 Washington Post feature that displayed thumbnail-sized photographs of American soldiers killed in the war, the exhibit features 1,327 portraits of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan between October 10, 2001, and November 14, 2004.

Annette Polan, portrait artist and professor at the Corcoran College of Art, saw the photographic portraits and felt that the soldiers should be remembered and rendered in a more personal and significant way. She contacted her longtime friend Jennifer Motruk Loy, director of marketing for CORE, to see if the architecture firm would be interested in helping create the exhibit. “I said ‘Of course we would,’ and that’s how this all began,” says Loy.

Polan spearheaded the project and was in charge of commissioning artists to create the portraits. Wrought in various media including pencil, watercolor, metal, clay, glass, wood, and fiber, nearly 200 artists contributed their talents to the project. CORE’s involvement with the project centered on designing the most appropriate way to display the portraits. Because of their intense involvement in the project, both Polan and Loy became members of the advisory board for the project.

Aura of sacredness
According to Loy, the firm and staff were entirely supportive from the outset, “It was a group effort. We dove into it last October and went through a series of charrettes in front of the board and internally to get our ideas together,” she explains. Their primary goal was to create an exhibition that would honor and memorialize the fallen soldiers and invoke an aura of sacredness wherever Faces of the Fallen is on display. Their final design succeeds in honoring the individual, but because of the manner in which they are organized, it also recognizes that the soldiers were part of a collective with a mission they were committed to performing to the best of their ability. In the military, “You’re part of a unit. What we did was to carry that idea through in the arrangement, but, at the same time, each individual was focused and placed in perspective on one of these frame holders and easily viewed as an individual,” notes Loy.

Individual bases of fiberboard were designed to hold up to 25 portraits secured on rods. The rods were then inserted in staggered rows measuring 3 feet at the bottom and rising to 7 feet at the back row. Loy says this was done so that a child or person in a wheelchair could access and have clear visibility of the portraits. “We knew that families were going to be looking for a specific name or date. We had so many sessions where we focused on breaking down the mass of it, determining how many could fit onto a single base to allow for the greatest number of portraits in one area, but also to allow for complete visibility of each and every piece. Though they are in a rising display, everyone is seen on the same level and in formation.” Along with each portrait is a plaque bearing the soldier’s name, rank, branch of service, hometown, age at death, date of death, and artist.

Flexible solution
CORE also had to work within the constraints of creating a frame that would firmly hold each portrait yet be easily dismantled so that the portraits can be given to the families at the conclusion of the exhibition. Their solution was a portrait holder that comes off of the mounting rod and sits flat, so that it can be placed on a mantle, put in a display cabinet, mounted on a wall, or lie on any flat surface.

According to Loy, one of the most difficult yet rewarding aspects of the project was being there on opening day. When working on the logistics of how to bring the exhibit to fruition, “we had been very practical about everything,” she recalls. We spent hours trying to figure out the number of slots and all the measurements, so everything was sort of at arm’s length for us. But on Tuesday night, when we were standing outside and they were playing Taps, it was the culmination of all this emotion and everything at once. It was really very difficult, but, at the same time, it was a joyous occasion because we knew that we had helped achieve something really great.”

In choosing to represent nearly 1,500 faces in different media, there were many artists who were unaccustomed to portraying faces. As the primary coordinator for the project, Loy was on hand to ensure that everything was in its place, and to provide comfort, clarification, and understanding for those families whose lost soldier was depicted in an abstract way. “It was difficult for many people,” notes Loy. “It was difficult and we tried our best—the organization as a whole and everyone involved—to help communicate to them that the artists were given some pretty stringent parameters, but at the same time we wanted them to be able to use their own style and technique to render the images. So oftentimes the family was faced with the dilemma of not being able to really see their child as they remember them.

“In one case in particular, I was helping someone find a portrait. When we found it, it was an image that was done by an abstract painter in black and white. To her it looked unfinished. I said, ‘I understand how you would see that. However, I know the artist and I’d like to share with you that she really worked very hard, particularly because she’s an abstract painter.’ We talked a little more and finally the mother said to me, ‘She captured his spirit. I am able to see that. Look at my eyes and his. Can’t you see that they’re similar?’ And I said, ‘Of course I do.’ So I really know that she was better able to understand the artist’s intent.”

Providing comfort and recognition
Nearly 2,000 friends and family members visited Faces of the Fallen on opening day. Gathered there were military and government representatives, including keynote speaker Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Sen. John Warner (R-Va.); and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Although the organizers worked very hard to keep the exhibition and opening day apolitical, there were some who spoke out against the war. But, in the end, the day was about providing comfort to the families and reaching out to those who are hurting.

“All of the artwork and politics aside,” says Loy, “people were just very pleased that someone took the time and energy to recognize the sacrifices that have been made. For me, it was nothing I had ever experienced before. They came together and met the artists, saw other families, and made connections. It was a really nice way for them to share. It was a part of the theme of the exhibition, actually, to share a common grief. Because, on some level, there is no one who can’t be touched by this. Despite what your politics may be or how opposed you might have been to this war, when you know that someone’s son, father, husband, daughter, wife, or mother died, it’s always a sad thing.”

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