Communicative Art Writing
Probably, every person experienced a terrible sticky feeling of helplessness when reading the news telling about what is happening in a particular country. Especially when the subject of the news is your own people. Being so far from home… At such moments there is a strong desire to make at least some contribution to help during the crisis. Despair, pain and the urge to shout about this problem, to talk about it, not to be silent.
Art is something through which we have the right to express our emotions, express our point of view, art allows us to go beyond and declare ourselves to the world.
Politics as a part of human life is connected with all other spheres of public life, including art. The interweaving of these seemingly opposite areas is a topic for numerous discussions and often opposite assessments. And for the government, this is one of the ways to interact with people. In different epochs, aesthetically minded people expressed their political preferences through art, which implies, on the one hand, the presence of "true" and “pure” art that excludes ideology, on the other — works with political overtones.
Iran is suffering from the worst drought in the last 50 years.
The problem with water has a negative impact on agriculture, it also forces residents of the region who earn a living by cultivating agricultural crops to migrate to cities.
Of course, the government is “trying” to help and allocates a certain amount of water for each family, but this is still not enough. People from not particularly wealthy areas, who had no water supply even before the drought situation, suffer doubly.
Trying to spread the publicity of this problem, Nahal created this art piece.
In this artwork, you can see a woman in a traditional Iranian dress holding a jug of water. Her gaze is directed forward while she is surrounded by the desert. But despite this, she continues to walk forward with a bottle of water on her shoulder. Next to the woman, we can also observe a caption, which means: "water is our strength." The work itself is done in digital, black and white style.
The first look at this artwork makes you wonder, where is this woman going? Why is she holding this jug, what is her destination?
Work really gives us a reason to think. The Iranian government prohibits people from spreading information about this problem. People come out to protest, the main slogan that the demonstrators chant all the time is "I'm thirsty!". The same hashtag in Arabic spread on social networks. This work has also become very popular on the artist's Instagram page, especially after one of the famous activists Hossein Ronaghi reposted it in his instagram story.
According to Nahal, she uses everything in her arsenal, or rather, her perseverance and ability to draw. Through the prism of her artworks, she shows the world a story of her people.
Surprisingly, she also stated that she feels very happy when she creates her artworks. When she was asked "why?" she replied: "I feel happiness, happiness that I have the opportunity to draw and tell the world the story of my people."
In conclusion, politics and art are two interrelated spheres of public life. Art in one way or another always reflects political events and the mood of society, presenting them in the form of art. Another problem is that not everyone can and knows how to perceive art as a special form of reflection of the surrounding world. Politics, in turn, affects all spheres of life, including art. Politics is designed to govern and subordinate, and therefore art is also subject to it.
Art and politics, reflecting the relationship between people, social communities. It's quite a frequent topic that Nahal uses in her paintings. She is not afraid to go beyond the limits, she destroys them, thereby revealing very important social problems of her people.
Citation:
Thedifferentlevel (2022) How art and politics influence and shape each other, LEVEL. Available at: https://different-level.com/how-art-and-politics-influence-and-shape-each-other/ (Accessed: October 25, 2022).
The strong relation between art and politics (no date) Widewalls. Available at: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/art-and-politics (Accessed: October 25, 2022).
