After filling the trench with sand, students placed solar lights in it that flickered to life, illuminating the newly scarred land.
This was all part of a new art project, “Habbakuk’s Wound,” conceived by Lee Benson, chair of the art department and Christopher Nadaskay, art professor. Both wanted a way to honor persecuted Christians.
“[“Habbakuk’s Wound”] is our response to the heart wrenching truth that our brothers and sisters in faith suffer monstrously and daily all over the world,” said Candace Gooch, art department academic secretary. “As Christians our hearts should break over this, and we should constantly keep their suffering in our hearts and our prayers.”
Gooch said the hope is that everyone who passes by the project will remember persecuted believers and take a moment to pray for them. She said the manual labor aspect of the project offered those who participated a way to play a small part in actively making a difference.
“This piece is a nice way to actively participate in an effort to bring the issue to light. Sweating in the sun, toiling away alongside my fellow art majors—the physicality of the project gives me a way to constructively channel my emotions on something deeply saddening into a work of art,” she said.
While creators of “Habbakuk’s Wound” want it to be a catalyst for contemplation of the serious and sad reality of suffering, they also want it to offer hope in the justice and mercy of God, Gooch said. The project will remain as it is for a year, and then on May 6, 2016, the department will plant seven dogwood trees and rename the site “Habbakuk’s Balm,” according to a Union University news release.
Haelim Allen, assistant professor of art, said she hoped the project built community within the department and taught students who participated the power of visual art.
“For our art students, we hope that this project will foster more engagement with what is happening around the world, and how we might as artists bring awareness through our creative manifestations,” she said. “The sense of community that we already have in the Art Department is greatly heightened when we work on projects with our students. Creating and making together is a sacred experience.”
She also said that the project’s beauty lies in the legacy it memorializes and the community it draws together.
“The beauty lies in the community, the community of faith coming together to remember our brothers and sisters, those saints who have gone before us. The project evokes the eternal,” she said.
