Between the Lines of the Public Consciousness “Share your story and we will fight together” Be aware of injustice in the society!

ART AS PROTEST

Fernando Botero painting

By Elizabeth H. Elys

Art and artistic expression serve many functions in political protest. This expression has an undisputed place in contemporary social activism. More stylized and professional art forms and artists have been involved in political movement.

In the 1960s, several artists appealed to the disaffected counterculture’s emphasis on peace and love, especially with the approval rates of the Vietnam War. The paintings were expressing the world scene, colored in red, white and black, features combatants wearing helmets and holding machine guns.

The painting capture the simple brutality of war, with blood-red background and sketches of soldiers it show strong message to end the Vietnam War.

Today we are facing with similar ethical issues when we watch the genocide in Rwanda or war in Iraq.

The art can have amazing power to foster collaboration between different societies. For example, a Colombian artist Fernando Botero’s painting have depicted reported abuse in Abu Ghraib prison during the recent Iraq war bringing more attention to the plight of the Iraqi people. Art is powerful in its simplicity; it can convey ideas across social classes and cultures due to its lack of reliance on language. War becomes motivating factor for activist art, and provides a metaphor for the more general exercise of power associated with men, women, people of color, and socially disadvantaged.

Today we can call street art and graffiti like social movements to express feelings and catch public attention. Social art or resistance art opposing power to apartheid in South Africa.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Sun Tzu
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/suntzu383158.html

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. - Sun Tzu

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Sun Tzu
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/suntzu383158.html