101 Souls

Imagine a line of 100 people stretching back in time. Each person was born the year the preceding person died, and each lived to be sixty. It may surprise you to know that the line would go back 6000 years, to the first city states. 101 SOULS represents these imaginary individuals graphically, and lists events that occurred during their lives. Thus we come to realize that Marco Polo traveled to China when the 13th person was alive and Shakespeare wrote Macbeth when only the 8th person in line was living. Through the art of the portrait, artist John M Crowther brings history to life with people much like ourselves, and demonstrates that technological achievement, scientific discovery, art, great literature, and almost non-stop warfare was compressed into a much shorter time span than we tend to realize. This is a new and eye-opening way for adults and young people alike to have the past made real for them. In the end we realize the urgent need for a 101st soul, yet to be born, to herald a "revolution of the human spirit," when everyone can live as they wish and believe what they want, when there is no more conflict, and forgiveness replaces retribution.