Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Nanjala Nyabola the Kenyan writer and political analyst, is currently a graduate student focusing on the socio-political dimensions of conflict in Africa has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘International law isn’t real’ in which she states “Although there is a pseudo-consensus on what the law ‘is’, it is in fact simply a consensus among elites. It’s one of the most common refrains you hear, especially in an American law school, as to why the US has no reason to abide by or participate in international conventions or nascent legal institutions like the international criminal court. The unspoken philosophical implications are: that there is such a thing as “real” law, and that domestic law has somehow achieved that gold standard. After almost two years of grasping the essence of this “realness”, swimming upstream against the glib acceptance that Law is, I find myself concluding that there is no such thing as “real” law. Domestic law is no more real than international law and if we allow one, the empty comfort of ascribed “realness”, we should be able to extend this comfort to the other. “Real” law is the necessary fiction that consequences must flow from the actions of one against each other, and that the Law as defined by those in power or with money, determines both the infraction and its consequences; yet another tool that those in power have to employ against the powerless. They are able to do this, because even at the most prestigious centres for legal learning and thought, few grapple the meta-question that underpins the entire exercise: namely, what is law? …The onus is on law schools and practitioners to think creatively about how elite consensus on this issue can be created. Ultimately, it comes down to two things: either change the minds of the elite, or change the elite. That is a call to anarchy.”

Inspired by Nanjala Nyabola, Aljazeera ow.ly/iqTxa Image source The Guardian ow.ly/iqTmD

Just we need some information from her (June 19th 2012)

Melinda Taylor the 36 year old Australian lawyer has been arrested along with three other members of a delegation from the International Criminal Court for allegedly trying to pass “dangerous” documents to Saif al-Islam, the son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Michael Vincent for the Australian ABC News reports the Libyan government spokesman Mohamad Al-Hereizi states “We don’t have anything against this woman. Just we need some information from her, after that she will be free.” …the ICC demanded her immediate release, along with that of the other three members of the ICC team. Libyan officials say Ms Taylor and the three other ICC staffers have been put in what they describe as “preventive detention” for 45 days while they are investigated. [Australian] Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who has sent a senior diplomat to Libya to look into the case, says it is essential that Australian embassy staff be granted immediate access to her. Her boss at the ICC, Xavier-Jean Keita, has told the ABC that Ms Taylor is an ethical person and says her arrest is illegal. “They are ICC staff with privilege and immunity,” he said. ICC spokesman Fadi el-Abdallah said he was trying to find out why members of the team will be held for up to 45 days.”

Inspired by ABC ow.ly/by3P5 image source whatsonningbo ow.ly/by38X

Sanctions are a key tool for chambers (October 8th)

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo a Congolese militia leader, the first person to have a trial launched by the new International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands after being accused of conscripting children under the age of 15 to fight for the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo. Dyilo’s war crimes trial stalled when the Court ordered his release after prosecution refused to provide witness identity citing security concerns.  The order was reversed at an Appeal Court hearing enabling the resumption of the trial. Between September 2002 and August 2003 Dyilo is alleged to have allowed the children to actively participate in Ituri hostilities located in the eastern province of the Congo.

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