After reading Democratic Citizenship and the Narrative Imagination by Martha C. Nussbaum I learnt that a) “The people do need novels and dramas and paintings and poems, because they will be called upon to vote.” And b) literature is a major moral/ ethical guidance for society. Although I always knew that literature was important, I never put too much thought into how indispensable it is in society; not only literature, but also all the arts. Visual arts is an art I personally grew up close too, and this essay got me thinking- what is the role of visual arts and how significant is it?

I have recently visited the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery on campus and they are displaying an exhibition of artworks that were created by the victims of Indian Residential Schools. Witnesses is a remarkable collection of artworks aimed to contribute to the education of public about the residential schools and to illustrate the inhumane and brutal misdeeds that were done to innocent children.

There were two short films, which were rather abstract. One of them showed an Indian girl who was taken away from her mother and put into school- the mother mourns and desperately cries while her daughter is forced to wear a uniform and cut her hair (hair is very symbolic and meaningful in the Indian culture). Suddenly, the classroom full of kids with zombie make-up and identical uniforms and haircuts start to dance robotically. The second movie simply showed an Indian woman bathing a Caucasian woman- perhaps a servant. Throughout the whole movie they are silently sitting there, one being washed and the other washing- and with a build up of emotions the Indian woman quietly starts to cry and little by little the mourning gets worse and the cries become more and more emotional. The collection of artworks all told stories of their own, and with the descriptions of the artworks, the viewer is able to understand the content and the story behind each artwork. There were stories of rapes, gang rapes, and physical beatings. There were a few paintings, and mostly simpler drawings that used pastels and pencils. The use of such media, and the illustrative almost cartoon like styles were perhaps to re-create the memories through a child’s vision. I thought it was more effective how such cruel stories were illustrated through a child’s vision in an innocent and symbolic manner instead of a realistic and gruesome manner. Witnesses addresses many of the problems and harms caused by the residential schools; rape, beating, destruction of families, minimalizing individuality and “robotizing” children, loss of culture and identification… The list goes on forever and it utterly depresses me to think further of the psychological harms done to them, having to move and live on after witnessing such inhumanity, having to go through life after having been robbed of your childhood, and even robbed of your identity.

Similar in aim as literature, through visual arts the “silenced” and the “excluded” people of society get a chance to be heard. Behind every great piece of art, there is a context, a story behind it- the artist either wants to send a message or express their feelings. The artists of this world, a musician, a writer, or a painter, they drive and shape the society by challenging society’s perception. An example of this would be Cubism- a turning point in modern art, completely changed the way society looked at things. Pop art, though rather shallower, too drove society into today’s eccentric pop culture we are familiar with. Da Vinci is a relevant example- through his drawings and notes a number of inventions and discoveries were made. Art is a way to preserve history- one of the most important roles of art. On more internal and personal bases, art is very therapeutic. Art gave an opportunity for the witnesses of residential schools to come to peace with their past- through art they faced the darkest part of their lives, and when an artist faces a memory or a thought and takes it out through brush strokes and colors they feel release (I don’t know how to put this into words)- it is a process of letting go, and coming to peace. I can’t stress enough about the psychological needs of a human to practice art- the power of imagination! Also like Nussbaum mentions about the significance of literature for kids as a moral guidance, visual arts is also a moral and an emotional guidance.

The “earth” without “art” is just “eh”!