UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS ARTIST COMMISSIONED TO CREATE MEMORIAL FOR DEAD OF NORTHERN IRELAND CONFLICT

This month, as green beer and leprechauns join in to celebrate the luck of the Irish, a professor of art from the University of Arkansas will choose instead to celebrate those who weren't so lucky.

Professor Myron Brody has been selected to create a memorial to the more than 3,000 people who died during the 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland.

The Irish National Museum of Modern Art has sponsored Brody to participate in its Artists’ Work Programme. This program invites a select, few artists from around the world to live and work within the National Museum in Dublin.

According to Brody, the program provides studio space and living expenses for each artist, asking only that they share their work with the public.

This, Brody is more than willing to do.

The program extends from February 1 through May 31 - a period of time that Brody will use to plan and promote a memorial exhibit for those who died in the "Troubles."

The concept that Brody has proposed combines all three elements of memorial art: emotional impact, symbolism and closure.

The project, entitled "HATE KILL DEAD BURY GONE," proposes to erect free-standing strobe lights that will illuminate a chosen landscape with brief, intense flashes of light at random intervals.

"The flash of light symbolizes the explosive nature of violent death," Brody said. "Secondly, it represents the departure of the human spirit from one's body."

Brody wants viewers to react strongly, to recoil from this idea - the sudden permanence of death. Only through showing the horror of violence can one hope to end it, he said.

"The purpose is to remind future generations of the results of violence and at the same time commemorate all those who perished regardless of the color of a uniform, the belief of the individual, the God they worshiped, the politics they espoused, or the government they served."

Brody first became interested in memorial art during his early education in the 1960s. While visiting World War II memorials in Europe, Brody witnessed - and himself experienced - the strong emotions that memorial art can evoke.

Even individuals who were not involved or even alive during the deadly event responded to the exhibits with disbelief and sorrow, he said.

Brody explained that the power of memorial art rests on its ability to symbolize, to embody the event or the individuals who died. A massive slab of granite can represent the immensity of death. Empty chairs can remind us that the people who once sat in them are gone.

His personal response to these images inspired Brody to explore the meaning of memorials within his own artwork.

"I’m not very good emotionally in dealing with things like funerals," he said. "I prefer to remember people in life rather than in death. But I know that the ritual of burial is a means of closure."

Brody hopes his work will help bring such closure to the Irish people.

In the process of designing his project, Brody embarked on a letter-writing campaign to collect information, suggestions and feedback from a variety of organizations and individuals.

He contacted heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, foundation directors, peace organizations, academic and religious leaders, consulates, community boards and members of the media - not only within the United States but also in Ireland, England and Europe.

As an American, Brody initially wondered if the Irish people would welcome his proposal. The torrent of responses that followed his letters soon eased his fears.

"They were very receptive," he said. "The Irish government had been discussing how to arrange a memorial, and they thought it appropriate that an American be involved because of our involvement with the peace accord."

Classically trained as a sculptor, Brody now utilizes photography in his artwork as well. Though the Troubles memorial will be a free-standing exhibit, it figures into a larger project that Brody has been pursuing photographically, called "The Silence of the Environment."

The flashing lights of the memorial capture sudden moments on the landscape, creating a visual, snapshot effect.

This use of two media represents recent trends in art, said Brody. Today’s artists must be skilled with a variety of techniques and materials, able to employ any means necessary to realize their vision.

In addition, Brody stresses the importance of business-sense among artists.

"This image of the artist working in a garret waiting to be discovered is pure 19th Century," he said. "I teach my graduate students to write a grant, to decipher contracts and to understand the law in relation to visual arts."

Despite the endless current of correspondence, the fund-raising efforts, the corporate presentations and construction contracts, Brody asserted that the essence of his project exists in its power to move people and thereby to effect change.

"When people get tired of killing, they will stop," he said. "After they’ve killed thousands and thousands of people, they’ll wear out and sigh and say 'What a shame,’ then come to the peace table. But why wait for it to get to that point?"

If his memorial in Ireland can teach even a few people about the futility of fighting and violence then Brody believes he has an obligation to complete the project.

"Where people are killing people, and you have the ability to stop it, I think you have a moral responsibility to do so," he said.

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