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Her wall of names is meant to put into perspective just how many lives have been cut short in the last 6 and a half months. She explained to us this afternoon that the idea for this exhibit was forged when she found out that Amandala journalist Kareem Clarke had been killed 8 days ago. She said that his tragic end was the catalyst to the "Wall":

Katie Usher - Artist
"We lost, what I think in my mind was a very good Belizean, not just a very good journalist. Because when he wrote his stories he actually cared about the person. He gave these people personalities and families, not just a statistic. So what I decided to do from the newspapers I got from my mom, I had a newspaper from the 24th of January all the way up to July the 12th, and I wrote down the names of all the deaths by violence. Unfortunately many of the names here were featured in his stories. in fact the last one that I had from his was from July 5th, which is the Friday paper that is posted for Sunday, as you can see his name there, where he was just reporting that police wants information on Ruben Leslie and Tarique Thompson. That was for the Sunday paper and unfortunately he passed on Monday."

Daniel Ortiz
"Now talk to us about the importance of this wall and the emotional value of it."

Katie Usher - Artist
"Definitely when we hear that its 78 persons who have been murdered or died by extreme violence since January to July, it sounds like a lot. But when I actually had to put the names and it filled up the whole space, because I actually started here in the middle thinking I would use this but I ended up using the entire wall. And that's chilling to see how big it is. My cousin is on this wall too, Michael Estelle was my cousin, he is on the wall. And that's kind of what this is saying, it's not just my neighbor, it's also myself. We've all been touched by the violence, I think it is high passed time that we do something. And that was the purpose of this chair, when you're in school, you are made to sit down and you are made to look at the blackboard and see what's going on and take notes. But I think we've passed that stage already, it's time for us to do something. So what I'm doing also, from the Amandala's that I had, I am taking out all the articles that Kareem Clark wrote. Let's not forget him or forget his incredible writing skills, he didn't only write about crime, he wrote about a lot of different things."

Daniel Ortiz
"Did you, by any chance, get an opportunity to meet him or was it always his print personality?"

Katie Usher - Artist
"I never met him, actually unfortunately I only saw him when the news came of his murder. I only knew him through his writings and I was always an admirer of what and how he wrote."

Unfortunately, Usher's exhibit closed today, since it's part of the Image Factory's Lab 2, in which each artist gets 24 hours for their project. You can find a link to a youtube video of Usher reading out the names of all 78 persons on our 7news website.

She is currently working on part two of the "Wall", where a portion of Kareem Clarke's voluminous articles for the Amandala Newspaper will be exhibited in Lab 2.