A Scrolling row of red, capitalized text. Multiplied thirteen times, and lighting up the entirety of the room with auras of urgency and anxiousness. Jenny Holzer created Red Yellow Looming in 2004, the very year that images of torture in the Abu Ghraib Prison the previous surfaced. The prison is located around 20 miles west of Baghdad, Iraq. These images include “the reservist grinning and pointing at the genitals of Iraqis imprisoned … Or holding a naked inmate by a leash… Inmates cowering naked before dogs, or lying on the floor with what appear to be bloody bite marks. Others show Muslim female inmates being forced to bare their breasts." Charles Graner Jr, an Army Reserve corporal was pictured and convicted of “stacking the prisoners into a pyramid, knocking one of them out with a head punch and ordering prisoners to masturbate while soldiers took pictures”. When asked, Garner states that he was directed by military intelligence officers to use methods of torture and humiliation to “soften” inmates and prepare them for interrogation. Former President George W. Bush was aware two years before this incident that his administration was seeking a policy change to declare war crimes under the same bracket as federal and international law, Bush was then advised by Counsel Alberto Gonzales to construct a legal technicality in order to avoid prosecution. Bush chose to exclude people detained during the war of terror from the Geneva Conventions, which are four treaties that insure international humane treatment during war. And thus The War Crimes Act was passed in 1996, limiting USA’s possibility of prosecution. In 2004, the release of the images and documentation of “legal” torture caused an uproar. Holzer collected fifty-two released documents from 1980 to 2004 and provided a scroll of text to illustrate the USA’s previously hidden plans with Saddam Hussein regarding the treatment of the prisoners. In an interview with Steven Henry Madoff for Artforum International Holzer comments “In my writing, I was more explicit as I became aware of a general unwillingness to look at distress. I wouldn't proffer hundreds of possible causes. I would talk about specific, terrible consequences regarding a few subjects, such as AIDS or attacks on women and children.” Her work focuses on truisms, announcements that are acknowledged as true, and provide no further advancements of knowledge, with no hidden, underlying message or symbolism. Her words are direct, specific, and graphic to the issue at hand without providing biased terms. Which allows for the text to provide for itself. Her work incentivises change, with effective mediums that are deliberately selected to accompany the text. In Red Yellow Looming she brings in the use of screen columns made of red and orange LED lights, and the snippets of text onto the screens, the text and scrolling effect mimic news tickers. These factors swell the room with the color red, creating an atmosphere of urgency and voices her notion of need for urgent change in the government as well as her disgust and horror of the actions brought upon the prisoners in Abu Ghraib. Through research I’ve made prior to now, it seems evident that it since the United States is a country with much power and influence, if a leader wishes to find an escape clause for an action that is known to be unjust and inhumane-- it is incredibly easy with the help of advisors and the intelligence agency, while keeping the public in the dark and unaware. This tends to be the case not only for major countries of power, but rather anyone with political power. If one in power wants to commit a crime, the power allows them to do so without the public asking questions due to fear or secrecy. I spoke to my mother on this issue, she attended Suddam University in Baghdad from 1992-2003, now known as Nahrain University, and had known one of Saddam Hussein’s cousins, who attended the University of Baghdad, and the two schools share buildings, but were separated by a fence and gate. She revealed to me that he would disappear and reappear during the years, he was placed in power of Abu Ghraib Prison, but then chose to resign as he could not handle witnessing the torture occuring in the jails before the war had even began. She also mentioned that the Abu Ghraib prison tortures were not the worst she had seen. If any of Saddam's relatives wanted a woman, they would kidnap her from her family, and the people would be forced to keep quiet to avoid being kidnapped or killed. She also spoke about a woman who attended the University of Baghdad who went missing for one week, and when she returned it was brought to my mother’s attention that the woman had gotten kidnapped for Uday Hussein, Saddam’s oldest son. Uday then raped her consecutively for a week and returned her to her family.