Issue 8 by Art Dogs

ISSUE 8 AUGUST 2015

Special Edition Art of Resistance Collective

Visual Artist

Bernadette Hopkins

y love of drawing and painting began when I was four. It started on a summer evening when I was looking at the old tree at the bottom of my garden. I remember being excited by the way it suddenly looked mysterious. I had a thick soft pencil and I started to draw. Soon after, I was painting from images from National Geographic magazines. I was fascinated and I was hooked! At seven I was mixing tiny pots of oil paint and experimenting with colours and crude glazes. And so my love story with paint began. A few years later the troubles started. Belfast was my home town. There were British Army and police raids on my home and early one morning I saw my father being taken away by British soldiers and put into the back of an armoured truck. This gentle man was interrogated and later released but harassment continued for years. Painting and anti-war music of Melanie and Bob Dylan were my sanctuary. I took up politics at school and I took part in marches and saw first-hand how others suffered (and died) for rights we now take for granted. When I was eighteen, my family moved to Dublin. My Donegal born mother could take no more and my fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business had been burnt to the ground. Worst of all, my dear friend Stephen McCann had been murdered. My mother refused to let me go to art college and so I began training as a nurse. In the hospital in Derry I saw the horrors of the troubles at too young an age. After that, I lived in Donegal and then Italy. Italy brought me back to art and inspired me. When I returned to Ireland I had a large portfolio of my own work and attended a four year course in an art college in Dun Laoghaire. Then I moved to Ramelton. I have continued my work as an artist since that time. All of these events in my life contribute to why I helped found the Art of Resistance Collective. We aim to highlight human rights violations through the peaceful resistance of art. Ruairi, Mark, Fadl, Kathleen, Rik and I came together following â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;A Candle for Gazaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in Ramelton last summer. It was an event where many Donegal artists came together to raise awareness for the inhumane onslaught on Gaza and raise funds to send there for medical supplies. The six of us decided to work collectively through our different art mediums, to raise awareness on human rights issues. We support each other as artists and friends on projects that promote discussion and question our sense of justice and democracy.

This is another part of my journey as an artist and all roads appear to have led me here working with these people that are full of integrity. I honour my process.

Activist

Fadl Mustapha

esistance as a form of action is in my genes, it is a part of my birth right, and I was born to resist the status quo and the situation Palestinians find themselves in. I am a Palestinian émigré born in Tal Izza’atar, the Palestinian refugee camp in East Beirut. During the civil war, in 1981, my family relocated to the United Arab Emirates. In 1991 I returned to Lebanon and studied Political Studies. There I witnessed the destruction, both physical and psychological, that the war had caused. After, I moved back to Dubai to work and there I met my wife. In 2006, we moved to live, work and study in Ireland. In 2011 I attended a reading of the play ‘Bassam’ in the An Grianan Theatre, and ever since then things have started to take a more definitive shape within me. Idan Meir, the Israeli writer of the play, and I collaborated together on ‘Bassam’ which later toured Ireland and internationally. We use the theatre as a tool for conflict resolution; to create space for open dialogue. I use any available platform to bring awareness to injustices caused by oppressors and highlight what can be done to assist those who are oppressed. I feel that even if one person gets the message then I have accomplished something significant. The idea of Art of Resistance Collective was initiated by Bernadette Hopkins in 2014 after the assault on Gaza. The aim is to promote human rights and raise awareness of abuses, particularly highlighting the plight of the people of Palestine. We also want to address the lack of opportunities to create a constructive discussion on issues that need to be focused on. Certain objectives are more difficult to accomplish as an individual, our voices and actions will become louder as a group. I see myself as an uncompromising critic of imperial condescension and believe that human rights, as I have observed on more than one occasion, are not cultural or grammatical things, and when violated are as real as anything we can encounter. We must engage in a debate about Israel and the Palestinians that many people would prefer to avoid. I want to reach out to those whom are avoiding this debate and those whom are undecided or not having the interest or the courage to make their minds up. I am in certain ways a deeply angry man. I am not a typical exile; most men and women forced to leave their country have a place to which they can look back: a homeland that anchors the transported individual or community in time if not in space. Palestinians do not even have this. I am pursuing three themes: the urgent need to tell the world the truth about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians; the urgency of getting Palestinians and other Arabs to recognise and accept the reality of Israel and engage with Israelis, especially the Israeli opposition; and the duty to speak openly about the failings of Arab leadership. I want to tell the truth to and about my own people.

Writer and Director

Kathleen Mc Creery

believe the world needs changing. Sitting back and leaving it to someone else has never been an option for me. But trying to bring change about is challenging, humbling and requires collective effort. The Art of Resistance began after the Israeli attacks on Gaza last summer. There was an upsurge of interest and concern from the community in Donegal: people cared and they showed it. We believed there was an appetite for performances, exhibitions and films which combine high artistic standards with ideas, information and debate around human rights issues.I have worked in theatre, as a creative writer, broadcast and print journalist, on short videos and films, and as a counsellor. I have been actively involved in campaigns for women’s rights, against racism, with trade unions, and have worked extensively with and for children and young people. I bring my understanding of these different art forms and experiences to the group. Having co-founded and helped run two touring theatre companies over 12 years, I am aware of what is involved in planning events. In the beginning we met regularly to hammer out our aims and objectives, decide on and organise our first film showings and our International Women’s Day celebration. Recently we have been involved in individual projects, but we continue to support each other’s initiatives. For example, I directed ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’ by Dario Fo at An Grianan Theatre for the Earagail Arts Festival. Mark McCollum produced, Bernadette Hopkins designed the set, Ruairi Friel wrote the melody for the final song, and Rik Walton took photographs and created a montage of projected images which opens the play. There is tremendous generosity and solidarity among members of the group. We come from different backgrounds, and there is quite an age range in the Collective. Our meetings are lively. We do not always agree, but this is no bad thing. Jeremy and the Regional Cultural Centre have provided space, projection equipment, organisation and publicity for our film evenings. We have been fortunate in having individuals who were involved in making them or directly affected by them present, and this has greatly added to their impact and enriched the discussions that followed. Bread and Roses Theatre will take ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’ to the Abbey in Ballyshannon on Saturday, September 26th, for the Bluestacks and Donegal Bay Festival! The group have a number of other exciting initiatives under discussion.

Community Drama Practitioner

Mark Mc Collum

Art has the ability to touch society profoundly and invoke

positive change. Through art, we can challenge many of our society’s deepest assumptions and misconceptions and show the complexity of situations. My involvement with the Art Of Resistance began just over a year ago, following a production of the Caryl Churchill play ‘Seven Jewish Children’ which I staged to highlight the escalating asymmetric conflict between Israel and Palestine. A number of artists came together in response to what was happening in Palestine and elsewhere. It started like all the best ideas, with a simple conversation around what we could do as artists, and how the skills and knowledge we have could be applied to address these situations and raise awareness. The group is made up of writers, musicians, visual artists, photographers and theatre practitioners. All of us appreciate the aesthetics of art but also are committed to the instrumental dimension of the arts; the skill sets we possess can be used to generate conversations and debate. My personal background is in the theatre and in community art and drama. I have primarily focused on issue based work or what is sometimes called socially engaged arts. I have worked in this field for over twenty years and during this time I have witnessed the transformative power of the arts within terms of its impact on individual’s lives and communities. My motivation in joining the Art of Resistance was my desire to engage in conversations around how the arts can be instrumentally applied to address and highlight social injustice and inequality. Importantly, I wanted to cast light on conflicts which were not getting much attention from the media. I wanted to ask questions in an attempt to try to untangle the complexity of the issues behind what was happening and present them in ways which were challenging and thought provoking but also accessible to a wider audience. We are not naïve, we know that the arts is not a panacea, the arts cannot singularly solve all the conflicts; the arts through creative engagement and dialogue can raise awareness and initiate conversations that may ultimately lead to finding solutions. Art can expose and help resolve issues of social justice. As a cultural tool, art helps humanise and actualise the emotions, grievances, and fears of those who may not have another place to voice or articulate concerns. Art shocks and inspires us to action. Fundamentally, I want to make people to make people think.

Musician

Ruairi Friel

W e started the Art of Resistance around the end of the summer in 2014. The renewed commitment to violence against

Palestine by the Israeli Government last summer became the catalyst for the formation of the group. Subsequently, Bernie decided to organise an event called ‘A Candle for Gaza’, and I offered to help. I had met Fadl previously in Northern Ireland through a programme I was involved in based around Identity, so between us we invited a roster of speakers and artists to perform. Lots of people came, and I think we all thought that the inertia could be carried forward into more work. I am a songwriter first and foremost. I completed a degree course in Sociology and Psychology. I run a storytelling project called ‘Raised on Songs and Stories’ and I am part of a music collective and label called Andromeda Artisans. Through this, we are giving artists the knowledge to empower themselves without relying so much on the traditional industry. The Art of Resistance Collective meets quite regularly, we try to look down the line and organise events. We do it to find creative ways to challenge power structures. We do it to talk, we do it to express empathy for the suffering we see in the world; especially the kind which results from corruption, greed, lack of perspective and power trips. We do it to challenge ourselves and our various artistic ventures. You do not have to know anything about politics to create change. Sometimes this worries me when I consider some of the messages being portrayed through the creative industries at the moment, specifically the music industry. Art is not always and does not have to be overtly political but every expression is an expression of consciousness, which is channelled by every one of us and so is a window into the current consciousness of the species. If we are socially connected and responsible for each other, this will create a catalyst for something to change, no matter how small. In this way, creativity of any kind changes the physical and mental landscape.

Photographer

Rik Walton

have been a supporter of the Palestinian cause for some years. In 2011, I was honoured to be offered a place on the Irish Ship to Gaza, which was part of a flotilla of small boats that was attempting to break the illegal blockade Israel had imposed on Gaza. It was an opportunity to do something rather than just talk! Sadly, our boat was sabotaged by the Israelis in Turkey prior to our intended departure. Our skipper took the boat out in pursuit of cheaper fuel up the coast, and on returning noticed one of the engines was juddering. If he had not, and we had headed out to sea, eventually the deliberately damaged propeller shaft would have pierced the hull of the boat underneath the engine and we would have sunk in a matter of minutes. This experience, which was widely publicised, made me aware that one should take the opportunity to stand up and be counted. Last year Bernadette Hopkins contacted Kathleen and me about forming a new group. The Art of Resistance is a supportive collective, we all share a common cause but that does not mean we always agree on what needs to be done. Debate and discussion are an important and welcomed part of the process. We do it because someone needs to stand up for people who are being oppressed and subjugated. We feel that as a group we can create events which question, inform and educate people with regard to the problems facing people all over the world who are the victims of persecution. We do this by arranging events such as film screenings where there is the opportunity to discuss and question the makers. In future we hope to put on exhibitions and concerts relating to our cause and even perhaps run workshops. I am a photographer and that means that I can document the group’s projects. In the future, I would hope to liaise with other photographers with the aim of curating photographic exhibitions. We have lots planned for the future. At the moment Kath and Mark’s company ‘Bread and Roses’ have a performance of ‘Can’t Pay! Won’t Pay!’ at the Abbey in Ballyshannon as part of the Bluestacks Festival and we are working on ideas for projects for the autumn and winter.