On Tuesday 23 September I ran a workshop at Fabrica for volunteers and staff. After looking at some documentation of the Hirschhorn work that will be showing during the Photobiennial I asked people to write down their responses to the work. Each response was then sealed in an envelope, thrown into the middle of the room and then each person picked an envelope. In small groups of four we read out and discussed these reactions to the work:
Disbelief
Guilt
Disgust
Intrigue
Defiance
I feel that good Art by definition evokes strong emotions within us, and this piece certainly does that.
As these images used are all from real life, and are already in circulation within the media, it would seem hypocritical to censor these images in any way. Should act as a wake-up call.
Wrinkly
Dishevelled
Whacked together.
Tacked and strung to the wall in a hurried fashion, not wanting to be cool or distanced or overly considered. The banner is glued onto the cardboard roll and this encourages you to view it as a banner rather than a picture.
An urgent display in sympathy with the flayed bodies plastered over its surface.
Horror
Disgust
Fear
Inhumanity
How can humans do this?
Some of the images I don’t know, can’t tell what they are and that’s quite worrying … I don’t think I really want to know – but you can’t stop yourself from trying to figure it out.
Horrifying – to see bodies to disfigured
And left with no-one to clear up the mess.
Imagine finding your relative in the street like that. Maybe in such a state that you’re not even sure if it’s your loved one.
I see this as a the deeds of others… I feel quite detached because I don’t know what I can do about the situation.
How involved/detached should I be with any war?
Whilst looking at the first few images of the entire work, I felt a rather distanced interest in the actual physical presentation of it: The fact that is is a partially rolled out banner, that there seemed to be something scriptural about that kind of reading surface; that perhaps what we can see might just be a beginning – would the tone and content of the material change further in?
And then the close-ups – then, I got lost in the horror, the awkward positions, the strange grimaces, the absence of expression.
Blood
Violence
Nasty
Intriguing
Emergency
War
Suffering
Extreme
Difficult
Red
Mess
Struggle
Unfair
Stupidity
Politics
Disgusting
Too much to bear.
