Art in Response to War

Hag, Nav. " Declarations: The Polemics of Art Engaged with Conflict." Axis 19 June 2009. 19 June 2009 <http://www.axisweb.org/dlForum.aspx?ESSAYID=18025>.

This article examined the connection between art that is created in response to a national event such as war and the uncertainty of the conflict itself. Nav Hag tries to examine the appropriate type of art and audience that was created in response to certain events such as the assassination of an important Armenian and the Iraq War. He emphasizes the importance of ambiguity in the purpose of such art work. He says that for a joke to be funny it should not be preceded by, “I’m going to tell a joke.” In the same way, a protest piece of art should not be disclaimed as a protest piece. There has to be room for interpretation for the piece to have the maximum effect.

He also questions the kinds of audiences that the artists bring their work to. He fears the phenomenon of “preaching to the converted.” He calls upon the example of situation where the audience was right and the piece of artwork had a powerful statement in the march following the assassination of Hrant Dink. The signs were made very fast and said, “We are all Armenians.” The timing and the audience was right, but as Hag concludes, the precision of those two are just as foggy as war itself.