Art is the Weapon Against Life as the Symptom

Art is something different to everyone and I think that's it's universal charm. For me art is something - maybe music, a piece of theater, a photograph or a sentence that captures your heart and transports you to the very inner of you emotions. It's a release and a vital way of capturing the beauty or even uglyness of a situation. I think that's why I'm so entrailed by the theater. When I'm watching a play or on stage or even helping out in the wings, I feel so much more alive. To me art is about participation. When you sit in the audience of a show, you're enveloped in a story. When you look at a painting or photograph, you wonder what the artist was thinking when they creating the piece and sometimes even similar emotions are evoked. The same can be said for a song or piece of music When you read a story, you almost feel as though you know the characters and the settings. Art is so much more then something that we look it, it's all around us.

Sometimes a artist comes along that really moves you. Art can tell a story but it can also highlight a plight. A few years back I stumbled across Austrian-Irish artist Gottfried Helnwein (quite literally) when his artwork The Last Child was displayed close to where I live. At the time I was quite shocked by the almost graphic images of child soldiers banishing guns, all in white and pale faced. I was old enough to understand the underlining theme of the art work, but still felt a little unnerved walking past the pieces everyday  Last year, I found pictures of the display online and I felt a whole new wave of emotion for the art. I saw the images as much more then just pictures. They where a symbol of the loss of innocence,  of the hardships so many young people go  through today, of war, of pain and of loss. It's amazing how a few years can change your perspective on things.

In the last week or so I've seen these photos going around Tumblr and I'm instantly transported back to be mesmerised walking about town and moreover creeped out (we could see the top picture from our classroom window and we where all a little wireded out by her huge eyes) Now I see the contrast between innocence, the good versus the evil.

I've spent a bit of time looking up various Gottfried Helnwein pieces online and I dare he say he's not afraid to use hard hitting images that verge on the controversial  He regularly focuses on young children and uses the medium of war as a contrast to the idyllic world of the child. Helnwein's work encapsulates themes as far ranging as religion and martyrdom to enslavement, innocence, war and Nazism. He certainly is a very talented artist and really makes me love realism as an art form.He speaks to our spirit of revolt and shows us the beauty in the disillusioned and harsh world of reality  You can see more of his work here on his site or by searching his name on Google Images.

Orla xo

P.S Sometimes my brain runs away with me and I need to channel. Ignore my stretching sentences and liberties with expressions and phrases that probably make little sense. Somewhere inside my head they do.