ART - PAINTING A DAY - MISTAKES - LUCKY HITS

segunda-feira, 25 de agosto de 2008

ABU GHRAIB


Oil on canvas 40X50cm
My great friend and painter Jay Huddelston once told me: "(...)You expressed disappointment with the influence art and artists are able to have over politics and social justice. I think our role is largely philosophical - like Socrates: "I am the gadfly." We serve by asking questions, and the visual and performing arts pose the questions in a vital way - through imagery - that people are able to understand and be touched by even if they wouldn't read an essay or even trouble with an editorial opinion in a newspaper. The most ordinary peasant can see Guernica and know the Spanish Civil War was evil, that Fascism is evil or they can see a play or a movie and come away with knowledge about AIDS or Islam or blood diamonds that they could have learned from National Geographic but they had no interest in reading. Just as songs are an improvement on poetry, art helps people digest philosophy. We cannot stop the war in Iraq, but we can question it, and we condemn the people responsible. Bush will be hated until the end of time - Art is eternal."
When I decided to paint about Abu Ghraib prison (inspired by Huddelston and Diego Rivera) I tried to find a shocking image that could express all the sickness and sadism of those specific american soldiers. Somehow I could see pleasure (almost sexual) in the face of the tortures in the Abu Ghraib pictures that were made famous worldwide after the Taguba Report in 2004.


3 comentários:

Liquid disse...

You manage to blow me away with your talents each time I visit!

Unknown disse...

só boca?
é rosto pela metade !
desfaz-se a face
mostra o que tem por dentro
dente
agulha
língua
o sangue que pinga
a dor é o prazer que escorre
a gente vive porque um dia morre
tem mais vontade em sentir a carne rasgada do que uma boca beijada
beijo por beijo todo mundo diz
mas lábios vermelhos sangue são desejos contidos
embuídos de ser humano, de ser pequeno, de ser mortal...
dilacerado no escuro de si
sentindo-se não normal
choca?
apenas aqueles que são insensíves
porque quem entende um pouquinho de alma nua, enfia agulha na lingua, passa pelos dentes e chega perfurando o céu da boca
qualquer arte pode parecer pouca
diante da reflexão que ela suscita
porque nela a gente vê
o que a covardia não vomita

Daniela Rosa

Paula Villanova disse...

Ouch! This is hard to look at, but I know it is supposed to be. Very effective at communicating harm and pain, but it could actually be a commentary for many different ills.