#0, The Censored Art of Rabel Bet-Shmuel
Posted by Rabel Betshmuel on Sep-07-2000 at 09:03 PM
Censorship is the greatest enemy to an artists mind and soul. It is the force
that sucks creativity and character out of a piece of artwork and inputs disrespect
and confusion. Censorship is also like a binding force, which combines reality
and truth in one body. Censorship right away also implements your ideas to the
eye of the beholder through the means of silence.
The reality behind censorship is a very harsh one. Reality comes in contact
with an artist when censorship occurs because of certain believes or ideas that
the artist is trying to represent onto a canvas. It is an act that definitely
lacks respect for the artist and for the art work. That's what happened to me
during the art show for the 67th Assyrian American National Foundation (A.A.N.F)
held in Chicago from the period of August 30th, 2000 thru September 4th, 2000.
With out my consent, my "Assyrian Politics" painting was taken out of that art
show on Thursday 30th, 2000.
Reality was hard for me during that period of time, but it led me to the truth.
Through brainless human actions, the truth started to emerge a while after the
painting was taken down. In this case the truth was not brushed to the side
and waited for the dust to build upon it. I will never let my words, ideas,
and actions to be suppressed!
Silence uttered the truth in an indirect way. Silence within a piece of artwork
is a good way of reaching the eyes of the viewer and making them realize the
soul purpose of the artwork. The A.A.N.F silenced my painting and now it speaks
to the public with the intent to better educate the blind forces that suppressed
it.
The A.A.N.F should be ashamed of them selves. They let "Zowaa supporters" suppress
the freedom of a speech and expression of a 19 year old. This is an irresponsible
act and only can be found in dictatorship regimes around the world. I'm not
against Zowaa, neither is my family. I have the up most respect for all the
men that have worked with them and given their lives to such a worthy cause.
But I will never respect the supporters of Zowaa who came and took my painting
out of the art show. My painting consisted of two half's. The right side of
the painting was described as the greedy and corrupt side and the left was the
good and confused. These foolish supporters immediately thought that the color
that I used to represent the right side was some sort of an attack against Zowaa.
It seems to me though that these supporters some how believed that Zowaa is
bad and corrupt because of the color I choose to use in the right half of the
painting. How could such people represent such an honorable organization and
diminish its image? What kind of supporters are these people? They are confused
and lost. They are supporters of Zowaa just for the sake of being supporters
with a lot of shallowness carved in their minds. I don't ask much from Zowaa.
Although I do ask that you separate the men from the boys.
During the convention I wanted to have a meeting with the people that censored
my art. I was not able to do that. All my pleas went in deaf ears. They had
no time for the questions that were so eagerly waiting to be answered. I tried
to ask certain individuals of the A.A.N.F what had happened and one was more
confused than the other. Or at least they acted like they were confused.
In conclusion, my goal in writing this is not to put any organizations down,
but to let the people of our nation know what has happened to my artwork during
the convention. In a way, I'm glad this censorship took place. The reason is
because it only makes me a better artist and such a thing fuels the creativeness
within me. I also want feedback on what I have written. Especially from 19 year
olds like my self who are attending college. I'm really interested in finding
out what you have to say about the censorship that took place during this year
convention. I also expect the support or at least the input of the student unions
that our nation has worldwide. If you have any questions or comments, please
direct then to rabelsart@hotmail.com otherwise post them on any Assyrian forum.
If you want to view my "Assyrian Politics" painting you can go directly to my
website <a href="https://www.angelfire.com/nv/rabelsart">www.angelfire.com/nv/rabelsart</a>.