Art and conflict x 2 (Tuesday 14 August 2007)
compiled by Laura Buckley
Art As Evidence
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| One of the children's drawings; image held here |
Drawings submitted by five hundred children who had escaped terror and violence by crossing the border of Darfur into Chad are now a dramatic testimony to the horrific rages of war that are affecting the lives of the people of Darfur. The ongoing attacks by Sudanese government troops have been illustrated by the children, who were apparently given paper, pencils and crayons by a peace campaigner so as to occupy them while their mothers were being interviewed. Images of Sudanese armoured vehicles, planes and helicopters are depicted attacking the less equipped Darfuris who are seen to be defending themselves with bows and arrows.
These raw, graphic and what one can only presume to be unadulterated drawings convey scenes of bloodshed and fear. What should be childish scenes of innocence and daydreams are corrupted by the visual and emotion atrocities that these children have witnessed. These drawings are to be submitted to the International Criminal Court to act as evidence of war crimes by the Sudanese forces. It is also hoped they will be exhibited so as to rally support for tougher international intervention against Sudan.
Director of Waging Peace, Rebecca Tinsley, who will play a strong role in this rallying, has been told by several Darfur women whom she has interviewed, “You have to be our voice. We don’t have a voice.” Perhaps these women’s children will be the voice, spoken through the medium of art.
Baghdad’s Blast Walls – A new Vision of Beauty?
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| Artist working on a blast wall; image held here |
A group of Iraqi artists who call themselves The Wall Group are being paid by the Ministry of Works and Social Affairs to spend their days transforming the large, looming and ever-present blast walls of Baghdad into colourful and artistic visions.
These twelve-foot-high concrete ‘dead blocks’, which are like streams of death and war that flow intricately through the city to act as barriers against the constant conflict, are finally perhaps some form of optimism, even if this optimism is one of fantasy and an era long gone. The bleak utilitarian structures of the present are being masked by scenes of a mythical past. The murals depict apolitical images such as Babylon’s Ishtar Gate, King Sargon of Akkad, a winged bull with a human head from the palace at Dur Sharrukin and extravagantly adorned queens upon the dismal grey concrete walls that surround palaces, districts and media centres.
These concrete monstrosities of war are being renovated into whimsical canvas-like images, which the artists hope to be merely ephemeral art: unlike most conventional artists who hope for longevity of their work, these Iraqi artists aspire to be simply doing the city a temporary but necessary service of creating beauty in a brutal and harsh environment. “If the security situation stabilizes enough that they throw away my work of art, that will be for the sake of my city,” declared one of the artists, Tahar.
Source -http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/world/middleeast/11murals.html
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