Anti-war art

It's performance art, it's a political statement, and it's crazy. Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal is spending a month in a white room at a Chicago gallery with a computer, bed, and a paintball gun that anyone can use to shoot yellow paintballs (yellow because it is the "support the troops" color) at him, 24-7, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The installment, called Domestic Tension, is a statement about how people so far removed from actual conflict can inflict pain on real people like they are playing a video game. Users compete to control the gun, some pulling it away from him while others try to shoot him. His actions, staying inside almost all the time, mimic those of people in Iraq who are stuck in their homes, he says.

Bilal opposes U.S. military action in Iraq. He fled Iraq in 1991, having been arrested for his artwork by Saddam Hussein's regime many times and refusing to serve in his army. His younger brother was killed by an American soldier in Iraq and his father died soon after.

You can see and participate in the exhibit at flatfilegalleries.com and crudeoils.us. Please, peace-loving Catholics, support Bilal and try to point the gun away from him!