Nadia's Art Outlook Blog / Angry Pigs (in Israel)

Angry Pigs (in Israel)

"Thinking about the situation reminded me of my two favorite people; Escher and Euler."

My last painting involved an angry bird and self-destruction so I got the idea for painting relating to Israel and Angry Birds. Last year I acquired my first iPhone and iTouch and like any other person in modern civilization I have become obsessed with playing Bejeweled Blitz and Angry Birds.

My iTouch and iPhone with Angry Birds cases.

In Russia an iPhone is a rarity on public transport, but in my recent trip to Hong Kong, literally everyone had one. People were playing Angry Birds everywhere you looked on the Metro.  They have full 3g coverage and WiFi underground there, but that was no matter, Metro travels seemed to be not reserved for work, but playing games.

Before I left for Hong Kong I had been in touch with Israel about immigrating there, so I have a fascination for Israel even though I have never been. I come from a Muslim background (Tatar) mostly so I feel mixed about the whole situation there. I think Religion is a poor basis for any government as the zealots always seem to have the perfect platform for staying in power and ruining things for the moderate and rational thinking faithful.

The whole situation of Israel fucks my head right in.  Why can’t people just get along? I don’t understand anything. It seems to be a minority in each faction causing the trouble with their extreme beliefs.  In any situation in life respecting the beliefs and personal rights of others seems to be the most important thing for peace, but it seems everyone forgets that with Israel.

First I painted over a blue background in similar technique as my last painting.

One of the most confusing thing is the us-against-them attitude from not just religious lines, but from Nationalistic ones. Most outside of the region seem hell-bent on promoting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one about religion and how terrible Muslims or Jews are.  You either hear how terrible Israel is, and how they don’t respect human rights (typical slimy liberal Scandinavian view), or you hear how crazy and filthy Muslims are, and how Islam should be destroyed (typical redneck American conservative view).

The situation seems unwinnable by anyone.  It isn’t Jews versus Muslims, it is zealots versus zealots versus other zealots somewhere else backed by other zealots.  Thinking about the situation reminded me of my two favorite people; Escher and Euler.

Euler would understand how to graph the nodes and come up with a logical diagram of the problem.  The problem is reminiscent of his famous “Seven Bridges of Konigsberg” solution.  How do you please and create peace with all the factions and crazy people in the middle-east without creating a violent conflagration? I’m no mathematician, but it seems like a hard problem to tackle.

Then I made the Star of David and began work on the Arafat styled King Pig.

The biggest stumbling block is how do you disassociate related nodes that cooperate (Hamas and Iran), with the respective nodes (smaller localized factions) contained within the parent node?  It is more than a simple diagram of seven bridges, it is analogous to defeating H.I.V. within the bloodstream. How do you get rid of the virus without killing the host? The finished diagram will probably look like an Escher graphic. That is my first instinct.

Muslim Israeli citizens (that’s right, Israel is made up of many respected Muslims) comprise 17% of the population, 3% are Christian, and probably about 50% atheist or agnostic in their real beliefs. Israel is accepting of the diverse faiths. This means the conflict has very little to do with religion. People are obviously using it as an excuse.

The problem attained critical mass and now just builds on itself like Paris Hilton’s fame. It might not have started from much, but now it’s a serious situation that nobody understands the root cause of.  What can be done?

Turning into a handsome King Pig. I think his mother would be proud of his smugness.

I don’t have a clue besides everyone all at once starting to treat each other with respect, even if some of the people don’t deserve it.  Yea, that solution sounds illogical hippie drivel.  I give up for now, but not before  I show my confusion through this painting.

My whole goal in this work was to bend the mind. Sure Arafat is no longer around, but he symbolizes the region to this day like the Star of David. His “Arafatka” (as we call it in Russian) is the first thing most people think of when they think of Palestine.

I then filled in the white backgrounds, and the outline of the bluebirds. I put the physics originally a bit wonky, so I adjusted higher from the "ICBM" point.

I filled in the bluebirds and their contrails. I also touched-up the teeth to give King Pig a little more realistic look.

You can make what you want of the bluebirds (bluebirds have a the special power of smashing glass) about to destroy the king pig in an Arafatka. Does it symbolize Israel being destroyed? Or does it symbolize the Palestinians infiltrating and being destroyed themselves? Or could it represent the apocalypse where everyone ends up dying? That is the concept I am trying to portray here, because I have no answer myself.

All I know is that I am addicted to Angry Birds, and green pigs bring a lot of symbolism and correlation with real life to me like Animal Farm does.  If Angry Birds ends being new age propaganda I wouldn’t  be surprised, but I will save my conspiracy debates for another work!

I touched up the glass and minor details for the finished painting before signing. See in gallery.

Work Details: Acrylic on 60x80cm white canvas.

-Nadia