RIP Cabu, Charb, Tignous and Wolinski
The drawing community is
that much poorer today. In case you have never seen their work the images
below are the work of four artists killed today by a terrorist attack.
Cabu
Tignous
Wolinski
Charb
The drawing community has
also answered back.
Steve Bell also comments on making a response here
"I want to be cremated. I said to my wife, you
throw the ashes in the toilet so I see your ass every day."
These cartoonists were often offensive, racist and sexist, but satire can be like that and it has to be understood as a particular type of voice, that operates within a clearly understood framework. If you buy Private Eye you know you are going to read and look at a publication that operates with a sharply critical lens. If it offends you don't buy it. Charlie Hebdo although extreme in many of its views, operates under the umbrella of freedom of speech, and although we all have a responsibility to think about how our words and images might affect others, however difficult to digest a voice might be, murder is wrong. The worst thing is silence. We have to raise our voice in protest or we become complicit.
Joe Sacco points towards the complexity and difficulty that the situation raises below, but what is most important is that he addresses the issue, he has his say and in saying it he reaffirms our right to free speech.
Mr Fish perhaps has his eye on the bigger picture.
Yates: The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
These cartoonists were often offensive, racist and sexist, but satire can be like that and it has to be understood as a particular type of voice, that operates within a clearly understood framework. If you buy Private Eye you know you are going to read and look at a publication that operates with a sharply critical lens. If it offends you don't buy it. Charlie Hebdo although extreme in many of its views, operates under the umbrella of freedom of speech, and although we all have a responsibility to think about how our words and images might affect others, however difficult to digest a voice might be, murder is wrong. The worst thing is silence. We have to raise our voice in protest or we become complicit.
Joe Sacco points towards the complexity and difficulty that the situation raises below, but what is most important is that he addresses the issue, he has his say and in saying it he reaffirms our right to free speech.
Perhaps the four panels below are the most threatening to those who believe.
Cartoonists also live outside the Western hegemony.
Sudanese artist Khalid Albaih, from Aljazeera.com
Yates summed up the dilemma we face with his poem 'The Second Coming'. As the world moves towards self-destruction, those who should stand up against the coming tide are too full of common sense and small decency to make a committed stand and those who are easily swayed by fanatic ideals become passionate killers.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
A line has been drawn.
Drawings are sometimes far more articulate than words.
Jean Jullien has given us this.
See: http://www.jeanjullien.com
I hadn't seen a copy of charlie hebdo but had heard of it - like most people, I was shocked when i heard the news last night. Its good that the French people and other cartoonists have shown their solidarity.
ReplyDeleteYes, a line has been drawn - in blood...
I also remember when the thousands of years old Buddhas of Bamiyan were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. All cultural expression is under threat.
ReplyDelete