Research - Conflict and Remembrance

Conflict and remembrance art emerged as an art form produced by artists who responded to consequences of war. Contemporary artists such as Diana Forster and Willie Birch work creatively in this genre to gradually introduce difficult histories to their audiences. Both of these artists have a unique way of expressing history in different art forms, such as street art and sculptures.

Any colour of each conflict and remembrance can mean something different, as colours are used to express emotions, it can be a powerful tool in representing conflict. Using contrasting shades can be a really simple and effective way to show turmoil as opposing colours can show a clashing of feelings and emotions which created symbolism in artworks.

A simple example of this would be to think of poopeint wires being represented by colours as different ends of a spectrum or clashing colours. Using contrasting colours like this would show two opposing sides of reason, creating something for the viewer without the need for explanation.

As well as colour, context also matters, this both creates pieces of work that have many symbolic meanings.

(WWII Marine Corps Aviation is a painting by Historic

Image which was to fineartamerica on August 18th, 2013)

In 1940, at the beginning of the Second World War, Stalin's troops invaded eastern Poland. A million Polish people were forced from their homes at gunpoint and sent to labour camps in Siberia. Diana Forster's mother and grandparents were among them.

“Diana's practice in art and conflict arose from her mother's experiences in Poland in the Second World War. Her mother was forcibly removed from her home in eastern Poland when Stalin's troops invaded, and was transported along with an estimated 1.7 million other Polish people to labour camps in Arkhangelsk and Siberia. Diana tries to communicate the unimaginably shocking rupture between a settled, normal life, and a terrifying future decided by people who don't care about you.” - Web.

Forster avoids showing traumatic, disturbing images in her installations and prints as they can turn viewers away. Accepting the art in presenting subsequent generations with the realities of war, we have to find new ways of engaging audiences and Diana does this through formal qualities which draw the viewers attention while the work is gradually understood. She creates impactful, meaningful abstract scenes with simplified images of cutouts of what happened in the war, shining light onto them to cast shadows on the wall can represent people, being the light, recognising what had happened and coming to terms that it actually happened.

Whereas Birch is best known for taking up social justice issues with a style that alludes while also drawing on folk art. Initially known for making use of rich colors, Birch now works predominantly in black and white, a shift that coincided with his move from New York back to his home city of New Orleans in 1994. His works earned the attention of critics early on, with the New York Times’ Roberta Smith in 192, 9n the occasion of a show that storied Exit Art gallery, that Birch “casts an unflinching yet loving eye on black life in America.”

Some of his figurative works range from materials such as pencil and gouache on paper depicting a lone youngster playing against a desolate backdrop or decrepit or abandoned buildings alongside a griffiti-streaked vacant lot, to Ritual of Inevitable Violence (1989), a seemingly charming scene of five boys playing in a grass-strewn lot that takes on a sinister tone as the viewer realises the boys are sucking on the barrels of gun-shaped candies, which can indicate more sinister meanings, and they’re more modern comparing to war related art. But this also relates to the violence that is influenced onto people depending on where they’re from and what their background has been.