Global Citizenship magazine for schools

Large scale conflicts happening around the world can often seem distant and far removed from the lives of young people in the classroom. We are ourselves often presented with the facts of conflict that leave us feeling overwhelmed or disempowered to engage effectively. In this article we consider a number of media that can be used to help engage head and heart as we seek to make peace. Statistics, personal stories and images have often been used to affect good Global Citizenship.  Visual art, painting and sculpture, can perhaps take us a step further into empathy and inspire hope.

Art can be used to help us connect to the tragedy of conflicts, historical and current and empower us to respond with solidarity and awareness that we can all play our part as peacemakers in the world.

‘Syrian winter of despair.’

At time of writing headlines are reminding us that we are approaching the third anniversary of the beginning of the conflict in Syria. The statistics are stark as depicted in the infographic below, more than 130,000 people have been killed, 2.4 million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries and another six million people have been displaced inside Syria. The stories behind these statistics coming out of Syria have been heart rending (download PDF infographic).

In response to this conflict organisations such as Mouvement Social, a Christian Aid partner, uses art, dance and drama therapy to help children to express themselves and open up; providing them with a safe space in which to talk about what they have experienced in Syria. Their example prompts me to consider how art can be used to help us connect to the tragedy of conflicts, historical and current and empower us to respond with solidarity and awareness that we can all play our part as peacemakers in the world. I consider three different media to explore these ideas.

Credit: Banksy

Graffiti

Banksy released this graffiti image to mark the three year anniversary of the conflict beginning in Syria. The graffiti image is a tweak of his famous work of a girl releasing a red balloon as a symbol of protest and hope. Its release coincides with a planned action of the release of red balloons across the world in solemn commemoration of the conflict that began March 15, 2011.  The medium of graffiti art takes on an added poignancy when one reads of the role of young people and anti-authoritarian graffiti art played in the beginning of the conflict.

Sculpture

Sculpture has often been a medium used to commemorate conflict and to encourage reconciliation.  The Tree of Life (see photo above) is a powerful representation of hope in a post conflict situation. Each branch of the tree is made out of bits of AK47s that were used in the Mozambique conflict. It echoes of those powerful words prayed at the inauguration of Barack Obama by Rev Joseph Lowry longing for the day when tanks would be beaten into tractors. The collaboration of ideas and the working together of communities to create this installation are the very skills of reconciliation and cooperation required for making peace. 

Painting

John Keane’s exhibition Children in Conflict  introduced me to the concept of a ‘war artist’. The Art of Peace is a sixth year resource built around his work and draws from stories of lives caught up in the Angolan conflict. Two of the paintings are of brothers Luis and Amaral Samacumbi. Two brothers taken as child soldiers in the early years of the conflict.

The brothers were unknowingly fighting on the opposing sides. Theirs is a deeply moving story of overcoming conflict and is powerfully evoked in the intricate detail of the paintings. The retrieval of lost years of kinship and dedication of ex-soldiers to peace-making are inspirational themes to draw on for any aspiring global citizen.  It is fair to say that the theme of child soldiers has been told to sensationalist degrees in the past through social media and it is indeed a theme to be treated with much sensitivity and care. This recent interactive piece on child soldiers in Uganda, In Kony’s Shadow, seeks to ground the sensationalism surrounding this issue in reality and hope.

Just art

cross-stitched mask on Antony Gormley statue, Crosby Beach

Graffiti, sculpture and painting are just three of many examples of how art can be used to communicate stories of injustice, raise awareness and itself be a form of action. Other artistic media are springing up locally, for example the craftivist collective, a social enterprise whose manifesto is “To expose the scandal of global poverty, and human rights injustices though the power of craft and public art. This will be  done through provocative, non-violent creative actions.” For example they gagged an Antony Gormley statue to talk about inequality. Find out more about what they do.

“To expose the scandal of global poverty, and human rights injustices though the power of craft and public art. This will be done through provocative, non-violent creative actions.”
The Craftist Collective manifesto

The IF campaign on world hunger not only used traditional campaign actions but also created a petition with 250,000 spinning flowers, their petals represented the millions of children who die because of malnutrition each year – the petition called for the world leaders at the G8 to take action.

Credit:Christian Aid/Tabitha Ross

There is no shortage of stories of conflict from across the world to draw from as we consider how to communicate the reality of conflict through a variety of media. This year Christian Aid week tells the stories of communities from Colombia, Iraq and South Sudan: stories of resilience, returning and rebuilding after conflict. As we consider their stories, and reflect on the anniversary of not just the Syrian conflict but also the 100th anniversary of the WW1this year, perhaps we can be inspired to employ a variety of creative means to engage with the reality of conflict and consider how we might all be artists of peace.