Artist marks human cost of Iraq war
At noon yesterday, Joanne Rice stood in a grassy area adjacent to Trinity Church Boston in Copley Square, where she held a small white box full of stones she had gathered from a South Shore beach. Rice removed a single stone from the box, carefully placed it on the ground in front of her, and said a silent prayer.
Under gray skies, she repeated the gesture 100 times.
Rice, a performance artist from Quincy with Mobius Artists Group in the South End, said she will bring 100 stones to the corner of Boylston and Clarendon streets at noon every day for two years until she has placed 70,000 stones, which represent "The Human Cost of War," the title of her work.
"I thought about how long soldiers are serving in Iraq," Rice said. "If we're going to make this sacrifice, we have to ask, 'What is the cost?' "
Rice took about 25 seconds with each stone. When she was finished, the stones lay in a circle. "It begins almost like a spiral," Novotny-Jones said, looking on. "It will spiral out, and maybe for a moment, people will stop."
April Simpson can be reached at asimpson@globe.com 