With the international stand-off ongoing in Ukraine, the rise of Islamist militants in Syria and Iraq, and the crisis in Gaza, it often feels like the whole world is at war and peace is a far-fetched luxury of dreams. While the world is strife with conflicts, artists around the world are striving to restore a semblance of peace and order to their communities and fight together for the attainment of peace. With this year’s International Peace Day just around the corner, let’s look at some of the most graphical campaigns aimed at saying no to war and conflicts and awe-inspiring artists leveraging their art to commemorate this serene day:
Image: Damien Hirst/Photographed by Prudence Cuming
In collaboration with the non-profit organization Peace One Day, Jake Chapman curated the blockbuster autumn exhibition, in which a plethora of credible artists refabricated the most devastating and distinguishable worldwide killing machine – an AK-47 assault rifle- as captivating artworks of beauty and even intrigue. These artists have surely re-casted a weapon of mass destruction and dread as a conduit to peace. Winner of the 2011 Amnesty International Media Award, a dynamic photographer called Bran Symondson came up with the idea of AKA Peace after what he witnessed as a soldier in Afghanistan.
According to Bran Symondson, “Having experienced action whilst serving in Afghanistan, and seeing how Afghan police adorned their AK47’s with roses and stickers, I wanted to turn the most iconic weapon in the world from one of fear and unrest to one of beauty and intrigue. This has been the seed for creating the ‘AKA Peace’ project”.
Image: HuffingtonPost
Brighton-based Pascal Anson designed the breathtaking feathered pattern decoration of white and gold dove of peace on the A319 aircraft to commemorate the international Month of Peace. The dove was chosen because it’s a symbol of social unity, peace, and the Olympics as well. Tracey Emin thinks the dove patterns look quite cute and fluffy, and so do we!!
Image: Arturo Moreno Cangas
Student at Rey Juan Carlos University and a designer by profession, Anturo Moreno Cangas thinks that we live in a world where our pre-set values and beliefs taint our thinking. If observed only once, things don’t really look like they are there unless we become more analytical. If you look closely, this powerful illustration paints a dual picture of two parallel realities. The red color portrays a reality full of peace and out of war, a reality every child aspires for and deserves, while the blue color depicts the darker side of life for the war children, who constantly fight against their dreams. A single color filter can show us the great divide we are oblivious to.
Image: Tumblr/Mark Santa Ines
Mark Santa Ines show us that art can be leveraged as a weapon to combat violence and terrorism, and can also be capitalized upon to inspire people towards peace and help in the fight against extremism. His one-of-a-kind project, titled “Drop beats: not bombs”, draws its inspiration from music and anti-war movements. The 22 inch tall piece combines numerous ceramic techniques and has become quite famous with art aficionados.
Image: wedadalbakr
In the wake of an “Art for Peace” exhibition, hosted by the Saudi peace advocate and painter Wedad Al Bakr, painters and artists from the North Africa and Middle East regions have donated their artworks to IPI-MENA. The artists contributed their artworks as a token of their commitment to advocating peace. These artists devoted their skills as canvas and talents to depict the ever-increasing necessity of lasting and comprehensive stability and peace in the MENA region and beyond.
Image: Material Culture
In an effort to reshape the image of Afghanistan from one of war wreckage to one of peace and beauty and to revitalize the Afghan economy, Material Culture collaborated with a few Afghan village rug producers to kick-start their famous Peace Rug Project. Material Culture challenged the village artisans to leave behind the imagery of hand grenades, guns, and tanks that they have been weaving into their crafts for years, to instead weave images of peace. This resulted in a series of one of a kind, gorgeous rugs, each echoing the creator’s view of the peaceful Afghanistan that they hope will rise of out the conflict that seems unending. This project aims to alter the people’s image of the country to promote peace.
Image: UnityThroughCreativity
After a young girl asked Laurie Marshall what would happen if the whole world made a painting together, she was inspired to launch ‘The Singing Tree.’ The name was inspired from a Kate Seredy children’s book, in which a wide array of birds join their melodious voices atop a tree to sing for peace. Laurie Marshall makes you envisage the world as the singing tree of the universe, where different types of life forms join hands to add beauty in the face of nothingness. The project is a collaborative effort, where the earth is put together on a grid, leaves are cut out and pasted on, the paintings are created on enormous wood panels, and each child donates a piece reflecting them.
Image: Facebook/Ana Taban
Tired of the persistent wars and all the sufferings that they leave behind in their wake, a group of 20 young people in south Sudan launched the campaign to protest the endless cycle of violence and devastation using art as a form of expression. The campaign leverages myriad artform, such as poetry, sculpture, graffiti, and street theater to speak about transparency, government accountability, and social injustice. By capitalizing on the power of art and music, the young artists aspire to penetrate the consciousness of the country and speak more clearly to its people and leaders. The paintings directly echo the exasperation of the young citizens with the civil war, which has been wreaking havoc on the country for more than three years. In addition to the paintings around South Sudan’s capital Juba, the campaign has taken root using the hashtag #AnaTaban for its social media campaign, which means “I am tired!”
Through his Peace chain project, artist Joe Murphy aspires to promote peace by creating a series of wearable artwork. Each piece has a one-of-a-kind design on one side and the inscription of peace on the other side in one of the 122 languages. The artist hand-makes delicate ceramic pendants symbolizing peace and stability and distribute them for free everywhere he happens to be, from events and festivals to the Buddhist retreats in Myanmar and the aisles in a local grocery store! Since starting his venture all the way back in 1991, Murphy has designed more than 593,625 of them, making him earn the nickname “the peace chain guy” and the local notoriety. While originally, the artist hoped to create a peace monument for all to see, clay was all he could afford, and so he settled for the pendants!
According to the Artist, “It’s my way of spreading peace, piece by piece. To brighten someone’s day, or to remind them, especially now, when it feels like we’re all divided — that they are a part of something bigger.”
Being a Blytheville based nationally recognized artist, Najee Dorsey is laboring day in and day out to restore peace to his community by sharing his peace-inducing work. The artist puts up his artworks in poverty-stricken areas to educate the masses about the African American culture and to bring peace.
Image: Sand In Your Eye
To commemorate the International day of Peace, a group of volunteers and artists got together to create 9,000 silhouettes on the site of the Normandy D-Day invasion of 1944- the Arromanches Beach. The haunting installation was designed to pay ode to the fallen soldiers, whose fires died away during the operation. The installation was washed away by the tide eventually after four hours, which further reminded people of the horrors of the war.
According to the Artist Jamie Wardley, “The idea is to create a visual representation of what is otherwise unimaginable, the thousands of human lives lost during the hours of the tide during the Second World War Normandy landings”.
Syrian born artist Manaf Halbouni set up an eye-grabbing installation in Germany to symbolize humanity, freedom, and peace. Dubbed “Monument” –three vertically placed buses resembling sniper barricades-, the mega-sculpture in the eastern city of Dresden has attracted brutal criticism from far-right groups, but aims to bring to mind the sufferings of the people of Syria and the barricades set up in the war-torn eastern city of Aleppo. The peace monument has no secret political agenda, but is meant as a modern statue of liberty.
The peace bullet by Nicola Evangelisti is the epitome of a supernova art installation, where we start with a single form which is atomized subsequently into small fragments. When sufficiently small, the fragments can be distributed inside Art Pod jewel boxes around the world. The Italian artist has his hands full with creating mandalas in the shape of the peace symbol using up to 450 small caliber lead, gold, or silver bullets. The completed mandalas are publicly and ritually destroyed, and each bullet is placed inside an Art Pod Optico jewel box. The peace symbol continues to alter its shape on the App’s map as owners of Evangelisti’s mandala fragments move to different places. In the near future, the owners might be able to come together to re-create its original shape on a global scale.
Image: Wong Tin Yan
The UNESCO HK Peace Project is designed to encourage intercultural dialogue and promote peace, and to serve as a cultural discovery platform for communities working together for peace or for youth. Employing Chinese joining techniques and recycled wood blocks, Wong’s adorable benches symbolize the age old philosophy of uselessness and usefulness, the migration from conventional to modern, and the transformation of seriousness into humor. Wong worked in collaboration with people hailing from diverse cultural backgrounds to create and assemble these unique “social benches”. Sitting on these benches inadvertently reduces the distance between people, which allows for formation of a “small community by connecting people and striking up conversations with random strangers.
To condemn the civil conflict that has plagued Columbia for over 50 years, the artist Doris Salcedo staged a public statement of mourning at the Bogotá’s central Plaza de Bolívar by covering the plaza in an enormous pristine white shroud, inscribed with the names of the many victims of the war. The artifact was temporarily installed in the wake of a rejection of a peace deal by the leftist Farc rebels, which was hoped to end the war. 2,350 pieces of white cloth were each embossed with the name of a war victim in ash, and then stitched together by volunteers under the direction of Salcedo. Volunteers carefully laid out the shroud on the ground, as meticulously and with a heavy heart as laying a victim to rest.
Can you think of any more awe-inspiring peace campaigns by artists which have caught your eye? Do let us know in the comments below.
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