Rehumanizing the resistance

Words are simply inadequate at this time. They can be used to cover up even the most obvious truths. After the first days of air strikes against southern Lebanon a colonel in the Israeli air force answered the following questions from a reporter:

Q: With all these briefings, how does it happen that 400 civilians have been killed in Lebanon?
Colonel A: There are 400 fatalities
Q: You don't accept the definition that they are civilians?
Colonel A: Our soldiers who are killed in Bint Jbail are also civilians.

Since then Israel has continued to bomb civilian targets in Lebanon, launched a missile strike against a United Nations posting and killed 37 children in the bombing of Qana. The IDF maintains that "all targets are terrorist targets".

Even though the scale of the operation in Lebanon are larger than usual, this is all perfectly in line with what Israel has been doing for years in the West Bank and Gaza. The day to day oppression of the Palestinian people seldom make the headlines, but probably has more impact in the long run.

Oppression feeds resistance. There is no other way to survive - at least not if one wants to maintain the dignity needed to feel human. To pick up a rock and through it at the military vehicles patrolling your hometown is a way of rehumanizing yourself in the face of the occupation forces.

Rajie Cook is a Pennsylvania based artist made Ammo Box in 2003 as a comment on this. It’s brilliant in all its simplicity. Just a number of rocks placed in a Nato heavy ammunitions box. No need for further comments.

Nida Sinnokrot makes a similar attempt at analyzing the levels of violence in the conflict in her installation Rubber Coated Rocks. The piece was shown at the same exhibition as Ammo Box by Cook.

I don’t know why Salmia A Halaby refers to her work as "abstract" when it very obviously isn’t. Anyone looking long enough at her beautiful and decorative paintings can make out people walking through the streets of Ramallah, a map of the divided state of Palestine, a woman holding a wounded child, and so on. Because her pictures aren’t realistic in a direct sense, she forces the viewer to feel, rather than analyze. It’s very effective.

But the most intelligent comment is made by Steve Sabella. His series of photos entitled Life is Splendid was shot during the last intifada and shows Palestine children in everyday situations. In the news we only see the riots and demonstrations, or the funeral processions. Men with guns in their hands, barely grown up kids with rocks in theirs. Through Sabella’s pictures their hope and dreams - their lives - are made visible.

Interstellar Overdrive

ArtNet features a fascinating article about Frank Stella and the origins of minimalism. Looking at his earlier works it becomes obvious that he is not as preoccupied with aestethics as one may think. Material and form is Stella's main obsession, as can be seen in Mary Lou Loves Frank, from 1958.

Lenin stands alone

I found a great Flickr set from an abandoned Soviet mining settlement at Svalbard, in the Arctic ocean. The small town Pyramiden was once inhabited by almost 1.000 people, now there’s nobody left (but Lenin…). Considering the location the architecture seems so bizarre I don’t know what to make of it. Just have a look at the town square, or the town welcome sign.

Back to the Grind

At first I found it utterly mysterious that the number of visitors to this blog had more than doubled during my abscence. After checking my sitemeter for referals it turned out that my google ranking had risen considerably for picture searches on the phrase "American Gothic". That link has been long since removed from my blog roll, but here it is again. I just love that painting, by the way.

I spent last week in a summer hot Copenhagen, where beer is cheap and everybody still thinks that all arabs are really, really scary. When the Israeli bombings of Lebanon started the daily news were filled with letters to the editor questioning what all these "so called Danish" people that had to be urgently moved out of the country was actually doing there in the first place. This continued even after a Danish refugee convoy was shot at by Israeli forces.

I didn't really have time for a proper gallery tour, but I did see the wonderful Cardiff and Miller exhibition at Louisiana. They also displayed one of Gerhard Richter's rare minimalist artworks that I found prefectly fascinating. All good stuff, but they really need to clean the place better. I actually saw a Giaccometti sculpture with spider web on it.

Not dead

This blog is not dead, I'm just taking it easy through the summer holidays. I'll be posting on a regular basis when I get back to work in a few weeks, and from time to time untill then.

Flamman is running another series of my Picture this articles right now, this time feauturing more contemporary artist. Last week it was about Edward Burtynsky's Shipbreaking, and tomorrows edition features Nicole Eisenmann's Alice in Wonderland.