War

http://www.art21.org/videos/episode-protest

Nancy Spero -7:50-9:30
An-My Le - 14:02-16:10
Alfredo Jaar - 29:18

How do these three artists compare?  What is their main objective?  How do they accomplish it?  Should we comment about things like war that are so complex?  Why even add our voices?  What's the point?

How do we respond to the world as artists?  Do we have to know what we're talking about before we can talk about it?

I was considering how I could respond to questions like this about a topic like war, and really all I could think of was the very few and far removed experiences I have had regarding war.  The first time I felt like I could understand a little bit of what war might do to affect me personally - here in America, far away from the wars that have been going on - was when my after only a short time dating my fiance told me that he had thought about going into the military.  It was a weird new kind of reality to me.  I had never ever considered that that would be something that would happen to me.  It's interesting to see how my perspective has changed as I have come to hear and see some of the effects that war had on one family.  My response is unlike any of the three pieces above.  It was more of a personal reflection.  This is a picture of my fiance when his dad was deployed for over a year.  It represents my own coming to grips with the idea of war and sacrifice.