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Thursday, May 21, 2009
Peace and Love . . .
Two figures on walls, both bearing messages of Peace and Love. . . which one do you like better ? Don't see much of either sentiment whenever I read the news. But I'm not giving up hope. As long as there are still photographs to make. The white segmented figure in the first image was painted by Jerome Mesnager, photograph by Mr Toad, Paris 1993. Second image in eastern France, 1991.
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Labels:
French Graffiti,
Graffiti,
Jerome Mesnager
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14 comments:
I see bliss in the man leaping for joy, arms wide, embraceable. I assume the truncated parts are due to his nudity, stripped bare almost down to his unfettered skeleton. Joy!
Christ represents love and peace; he practiced it and preached it. But it's hard to look at this picture witout anything but sorrow: his feet are mired in cement, his arms are missing, and he looks out with unseeing eyes. Pitiful. A sacrifice to teach us love and peace.
Wonderful, dramatic pictures, Owen!
Black and white photos give so much drama to a subject matter.
Thank you for following my blog. I am now following you!
I definately prefer the first image, I didn't even see the jumping figure for the first while! I was just seeing "class war" followed by "love and peace".. The first image is so much more enjoyable to look at, probably because I live in Catholic Ireland and it brings back memories of endless stern religeous lectures by nuns at school. Religeous imagery can be so sombre.. surely that's not what the message is!?... Both really nice pictures though!
I remember your post from earlier this month with a Mesnager figure. Back when I followed the link I was struck by the way the context of the figures effected me. On canvas they seemed very mundane but when carried out as graffiti they seem to fulfill their potential. I don't think that the iconography of Passion portrayal intends to carries the theme of peace and love. (I just took a minute to google search a more suitable Christ, peace, love image and am left wondering at the dearth of choice)
I think the images work well as a pair. They seem to bring out the tensions and contrasts in each other, between images/texts, anarchy/tradition, movement/stasis, ephemeral/enduring, revolutionary ideologies/organised religion.
Hmm, that's my bit of pretension over with for the day. ;)
You know, on a "gut" level, both of the images seem very violent to me. They don't seem to send a message of peace and love at all, but rather anger -- at least to my untrained eye.
The so-called "peace and love" movement of the 60s and 70s was one of the most violent times, and was not peaceful at all. It's sort of a dichotomy, isn't it, that folks who want peace and love for everyone sort of force it on other folks in such an aggressive manner. I rather like the Buddhist concept of peace and love. It seems to much more -- peaceful.
Your photographs are always wonderful. So far I have not seen one macro closeup of a flower, thank goodness. If you've seen one, you've seen them all... :-)
Definitely the first one, the second has religious connotations;I don't see religions as either very peaceable or loving. Au contraire.
Thanks for joining my blog. Would you consider putting me into your blogroll, too, please? I could do with getting better known, after all, I've been posting since January. And, as you say, a blograt needs comments, what's the use of shouting into the world without an echo?
The sheer exuberence of the first one gets my vote - so warm and welcoming. A grafitti hug!
J'aime beaucoup la troisième image qui se dégage des deux photos ! Owen, tu superposes les deux et ça t'en fais une troisième ! Do u understand ? Non, je t'explique car je sais que t'es long à comprendre !...
Sinon Owen, quel beau jeudi ensoleillé !... Qu'as-tu fais de beau en cette belle journée ?
Je tiens à te dire aussi que je te vois de - en -... et ça ne va pas ! Je sais que t'as du boulot et que tu démarches... M ais quand même Owen...!
Allez, ça ira pour cette fois-ci ! Mais fais gaffe Owen... plus de thé zen !...
Bon, j'arrête !;)
Ciao pixel M ! 8)
EEEEEK - the second photo seems creepy to me. I'm much happier with the first one, I love the bouncing silhouette there.
Nice idea to put both photos in b&w and post them together.
Peace & Love, eh? Oddly, my mind has been singing tunes from the musical "Hair" to itself for the past week or so. Is there something in the internether?
Come on over and pick up your award.
English R... huh ? oh my, will flap my little wings and croak my way over...
Lynne, I'm more and more convinced that there are magical fumes permeating the blogospheric realms... for example, take a look at English Rider's psychedelic post, then follow link I left in a comment for here to Desi's place, all that in one day... "Let the Sun Shine In ! Or like the Grateful Dead said : Here Comes Sunshine !!!
Nath, I share your "eeek", the first one does it for me, but I saw some parallels when they showed up next to each other in a Windows Explorer window... although, I am wondering who the white bust sculpture is in the second one...
J34, been SO busy... ce jeudi, c'était velo dans le foret, puis zen thé...
Hey Steve, I hear you loud and clear, exuberance in the air there... Mr Mesnager is a wonderful artist, if you google his name, lot's more visible on his site.
Friko, thx for stopping in again; ask and you shall receive... for what it may be worth you are now in the fun blog list, and if it causes a sudden deluge in traffic, well, get your umbrella ready... LOL, my blog is so obscure, you may get a few friendly folks in, but the crowds are elsewhere... sigh...
Jo, alot of truth in what you say, you read part of my mind, the peace and love message seemed very ill at ease with the visual imagery, even if as others observed here, there is a certain exuberance about the white man's leap. The Christ figure here is pure sadness to me, such images evoke Arnold's "Dover Beach"... the end of an age (and high time too). Always great to see you, and no, I'm not big on macro flower pix either, although I did post some Renoncules a while back to celebrate Spring.
J in China, your "pretension" was right on the money ! You read my mind perfectly... perhaps you should take up palm reading or tarot cards ? Excellent observations...
Bill, agree, the Mesnager pieces are best viewed in situ, where he painted them in gritty city settings, and no, not much peace or love in the crucifixion... it continues to amaze me how we celebrate the torture of another human. The White House is worried about releasing more abuse photos from prisons in Iraq, but "jeez", just go to any church for same story, different day...
WaterMeows, was just reading a news story about more accounts of abuse coming out at Irish religious institutions over a period of decads... what sad and twisted worlds have been created... up to us to escape that heavy heritage and make joyous music, and plenty of it...
Joanne, left a little note over at your place, come back any time, the coffee is always on here...
Margaret, yeah, the stripped down white man is the bare essentials of inner light in my opinion, the dance of human form, I fell in love with this character the first time I saw him, and have often painted imitations on walls whenever I've had renovation work to do somewhere. (and then painted over them) The Christ sculpture here in fact is missing both arms and both feet (the feet aren't in concrete, they're broken off, it's a bit of an illusion, but anyway, he's a quadruple amputee, but still looking to the sky. How people find any consolation in that sad story is beyond me... I agree with Jo, the Buddhists have a more truly peaceful take on alot of things...
Peace brings love, among many other things. Without peace there will be no comfort, no settlement, no agreement, no stability among humans, all this, among other things that peace would provide would make love difficult
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