18 November 2008

Artistic Expressions Promote Human Rights

Painters, musicians and others shine spotlight on injustice

Cuban-born salsa singer Willy Chirino addresses social issues in his music and runs a foundation to help disadvantaged children.

By Lauren Monsen
Staff Writer

Washington — The great Spanish artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) bore witness to his country’s turmoil in the early 19th century by creating a series of paintings and prints that reflected the horrors of war. Since then, many artists have followed his lead, using art as a vehicle for social protest in works that promote human rights, peace and justice.

Examples include artistic giants of the 20th century, such as painter Diego Rivera (1886–1957). Rivera and other 1930s muralists covered the walls of Mexico’s schools, ministerial buildings, churches and museums with images that celebrated their country’s history and recognized the contributions of Mexico’s marginalized Indian population. The muralists believed that placing art in public spaces had a democratizing effect because it made art accessible to all people, regardless of race or social class.

Spanish painter/sculptor Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was another artist whose perspective was shaped, in part, by Goya. Picasso’s monumental painting Guernica depicted the 1937 Nazi bombing of Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War.  The painting served to highlight — and condemn — the atrocities that Picasso had witnessed.

ART RENEWING COMMUNITIES

Many 21^st-century artists are rising to the same challenge, even if their goals are more modest. Brazil’s Monica Nador, whose work has been showcased in France, Australia and elsewhere, was educated at a fine arts academy. She became increasingly troubled by the idea that creating art was a luxurious pursuit with no relevance to the desperate poverty she saw in some parts of Latin America.

A re-examination of her relationship to painting led Nador to use her talents to help disadvantaged communities preserve their historic traditions. For several years, Nador has traveled to urban and rural areas in Brazil, Cuba and Mexico, at the invitation of local citizens, to paint murals on houses and other buildings.

Residents help Nador choose colors and decorative motifs, so the finished murals often have a distinctly regional flavor. Everyone is both teacher and student, involved in a process of civic renewal, according to Nador. The work, she said, is “good for people’s mental and spiritual health.”

Burmese comedian U Maung Thura (better known as Zarganar) uses humor to mock and challenge his country’s ruling military junta.

Nador also established the Jardim Miriam Arte Clube (JAMAC), a nonprofit association named after one of the roughest neighborhoods in São Paulo, Brazil. Working from Nador’s studio home, JAMAC recruits at-risk youths into arts programs that generate income, teach skills and keep youngsters off the streets. Through JAMAC, Nador fights violence, crime, discrimination, injustice and hunger — and the work of her young apprentices reflects art’s powerful effects.

Participants discover “that art can be healing,” Nador told America.gov.  “It can produce bonds, friendship, a sense of citizenship, of belonging.”  Perhaps most important, “it brings joy” to people who have known little happiness.

OTHER VOICES OF CONSCIENCE

Musicians, too, have a well-documented history of political activism. During the 1960s, many American rock bands and singer/songwriters (including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez) opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and the tradition of music as a form of protest continues in the United States.

Message-driven music also took root in other parts of the world. Jamaica’s Bob Marley (1945-1981) wrote and performed reggae songs that attacked social injustice at home and abroad. Pop singer Juan Luis Guerra of the Dominican Republic often addresses social issues in his music, as does Cuban-born salsa singer Willy Chirino, a performer considered one of the fathers of the so-called “Miami Sound” (a fusion of Cuban, Brazilian and Caribbean rhythms).

Mixed-media and multidisciplinary artists offer strong messages as well. Sri Lankan singer/songwriter Nimal Mendis directed a documentary film called Shattered Pearl, which highlights the struggles of women affected by the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka.

Canadian artist Rebecca Belmore examines history, displacement, cultural loss and identity through a combination of sculpture, installation, and video and live performances. A member of the Anishinaabe tribe of North American Indians, Belmore develops projects that explore how Canada’s indigenous population once had to forfeit its heritage because of government-imposed assimilation into Western culture.

The need to reclaim tribal heritage was dramatized by Belmore’s 1991 project, Speaking to Their Mother, a work that underscored the complex relationship of First Nations peoples to the land that nurtured their ancestors. Belmore created an enormous, intricate wood megaphone and toured First Nations communities across Canada, asking residents to speak to the land through her megaphone. The result was a series of photographs and audio recordings, described by art critic Michael Lithgow as “heartfelt and moving addresses” by Indian tribal representatives.

Other compelling examples of the artist-as-messenger phenomenon can be found worldwide. In Burma, comedian U Maung Thura (better known by his stage name, Zarganar, or “The Tweezers”) uses sly humor to mock his country’s ruling military junta — and endures harsh retaliation. After a cyclone hit Burma in May, Zarganar organized a campaign to distribute food and supplies to stricken villagers, but because his relief efforts had drawn attention to the junta’s incompetence, his campaign was shut down.

Wherever they may be, artists who stand against injustice are playing an important role, stirring the collective conscience of their audience through paintings, music, photography, films or live works.  It is a mission that Goya — an artist hailed, simultaneously, as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the Moderns — almost certainly would applaud.