Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Jose Efrain Rios Montt the 86 year old former de facto President of Guatemala, dictator, army general, and former president of the Congress, who came to public office through a coup d’etat in1982 is currently on trial for Genocide and crimes against humanity. Amy Ross in an Aljazeera article titled ‘Wading uncharted waters: The trial of Rios Montt’ discusses how the events in Guatemala are exceptional because they are happening at home, in the nation where the crimes occurred. Ross states “When a judge ruled … Montt will, finally, stand trial for the crime of genocide, the news resounded profoundly at home and abroad. These events in Guatemala mark the first time a national court, anywhere, prosecutes its own former head of state for the crime of genocide. Several international courts established in the last 20 years have prosecuted people involved in genocide. …the judge ordered the former army general confined to his home – represented an extraordinary break with impunity in the Central American country; the decision to proceed with the trial, despite attempts to have the charges dropped, is of even greater significance. No ranking officer has been held responsible for the violence in which some 200,000 people, almost all civilians, lost their lives. …Holding trials “away” has been deemed appropriate when conducting a trial at home carries considerable risks. The rationale behind establishing international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, The Netherlands, and for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, was that holding trials in the country where the violence occurred would put participants at risk and potentially disrupt other fragile socio-political conditions.  …We should pay close attention to these legal proceedings in Guatemala. In the US, evidence of torture, disappearances and other crimes against humanity committed by US service members is denied, ignored or disposed of with minimal punishment. We might well need lessons from the brave lawyers in Guatemala.”

Inspired by Amy Ross, Aljazeera ow.ly/hMHhZ Image source The Kooza ow.ly/hMHEM

William Lloyd George the British freelance journalist warns of an impending humanitarian crisis in western Myanmar where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are threatened by an increase in sectarian violence. George in an article published on Aljazeera states “There is a thin line between ethnic cleansing and genocide. Hitler carried out ethnic cleansing on Jewish communities for years before he attempted genocide. With the whole country, including the democracy movement, seemingly behind the government’s plans to expel the Rohingya, urgent intervention is needed to save the Rohginya from a humanitarian crisis, and the potential for a violent campaign by the state, alongside Rhakine extremists backed by local authorities. The two communities should not be separated as the government plans; instead there is an urgent need to bring the communities back together, and return the region to normality. Conflict resolution programmes and development is needed as soon as possible. The longer the two communities are apart, the more radicalisation – of both groups – will fester, and whether the government allows it to take place, supports it, or just turns a blind eye, a return to some form of violence will be almost inevitable. …Myanmar’s democracy activists, human rights defenders, and vibrant civil society, should immediately address the impending humanitarian crisis and potential devastation of the Rohingya people.”

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/cyZXc image source rtrfm ow.ly/cyZP9

Laws to protect the interests of the Earth (November 6th)

Polly Higgins the 43 year old UK barrister voted by the Ecologist as one of the ‘Worlds Top 10 Visionary Thinkers’ continues to strive for the United Nations to acknowledge ‘Ecocide’ as an international crime. The UN currently recognizes four significant crimes against Peace: Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes of Aggression. Higgins proposal is to include ‘Ecocide’ as a fifth. “Corporations have no legal responsibility for the Earth, yet they have accrued silent rights – the right to pollute, to emit, to destroy – which have allowed enormous damage and destruction to take place without consequence.” Higgins claims the earth is treated unfairly and is “in need of a good lawyer”, however “the laws to protect the interests of the Earth do not exist” and it is “time now to change the rules of the game and eradicate the Ecocide”.

Inspired by aljazeera http://ow.ly/76G8c image source pollyhiggins.com http://ow.ly/76G0d

Ratko Mladić the 69 year old former Bosnian Serb military leader who had been finally arrested under a 1995 indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) for genocide in the former Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War and transferred to the Hague for trial, has claimed he is unfit due to health issues to proceed with the trial. Mladić had lived as a fugitive for sixteen years in Serbia, praised by many as a hero, and arrested in Lazarevo in the Banat region of the Vojvodina province. Accusations against Mladić include orchestrating the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and burying the remains in mass graves in the area, described as the worst slaughter of civilians in Europe since World War II. Mladić had suffered several strokes in recent years.

Inspired by Jovana Gec ow.ly/55PcX image source Politika newspaper ow.ly/55Pba

Augustin Bizimungu the 58 year old former Rwandan Armed Forces general and chief of staff has been sentenced by the United Nations court for Rwanda to a 30 year prison term for his 1994 100 day murderous genocide of the minority Tutsis. The genocide targeted minority Tutsis referred to by Bizimungu as “cockroaches”, providing machetes to his Hutus militia followers resulting in the deaths of 800,000. The slaughter was triggered by the shooting down of a plane returning with the Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana on board from peace talks with the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), providing the pretext for the slaughter. Prosecutors at the commencement of the court hearing took two and half hours to read the accusations against him which including rape, sexual abuse and humiliation of Tutsi women and children.

Inspired by Aislinn Laing ow.ly/51vcL image source Jane Some ow.ly/51vu0

People would not get back their right to vote (December 23rd)

Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury a 58 year old senior politician of the Bangladesh opposition has been ordered by a senior judicial magistrate to be shown arrested in a sedition case brought by the police chief Mohammad Mofizuddin for making derogatory comments 12 months earlier about the murder of the acclaimed father of Bangladesh independence (Bangabandhu) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.  The Bangaldesh government has also asked for his arrest on war crimes charges, stemming from murders committed during the 1971 fight for independence and more recently during an opposition-sponsored general strike, to which Chowdhury has denied any involvement. The recently established war crimes tribunal now claims evidence of genocide, rape, arson and looting during the war of independence committed by Chowdhury 40 years earlier.

Inspired by bdnews24.com http://ow.ly/3uB2V

Political Arts | Ian Bunn Visual Artist

My digital art work is essentially politics and art. It’s about iconic people, places and events of our day.  Recorded visually through daily compilations of manipulated digital images, posted online and disseminated via online media and social networks. The works are diaristic in nature that metaphorically record a spectator’s experience of the contemporary digital age.  The resulting work intentionally has a painterly aesthetic acknowledging my historical painting practice.

Adapting Pop Art’s notion of mass media imagery into a context of the contemporary digital age, the work draws on a myriad points of reference. Utilizing fractured images to provide an allusion to the digital noise pounding away daily into our sub consciousness.  The work is essentially popular culture arts, diverging from the traditional Pop Art notion of a pronounced repetition of a consumer icon, instead this work focuses on the deluge of contemporary digital content. The compilation of the fragmented imagery is vividly distractive, not unlike cable surfing or a jaunt through Times Square.

This digital photo manipulation art work is premised on the basis that Pop art in its beginnings, freeze-framed what consumers of popular culture experienced into iconic visual abstractions. With the advent of the techno age, visual information circulates in such quantities, so rapidly and exponentially, that to comprehend a fraction of it all becomes a kind of production process in itself.  Hence this work considers fragmented elements of Popular Culture through an artistic and conceptual exploration of specific people and events of the day.

www.ianbunn.com