Western Civilization (VISUAL TOUR)
Thesis Statement
Hilario, Kester, Fiel, and Adelino’s artwork of Tree of Life evokes a strong message of civil war caused by capitalism and communist ideologies through the use of imagery.
The tree of life
Description
The sculpture was commissioned for the African galleries in the British Museum. It was a close partnership between the museum and Christians Aid, above-listed artists (who were engaged in the project known as Transforming Arms into Tools), as well as the Mozambican Christian Council.
After the end of the Portuguese colonization in the country, Mozambique was engaged in a civil war. It was externally fueled because of different ideologies. In this regard, the country was in a power struggle during the cold war, where the ideologies of the United States of the Soviet Republic and the Western caused differences. In this regard, the USSR championed communism in the country, whereas the West was anticommunism. As a result, there was the beginning of a civil war that will end after seventeen years. More than one million individuals died during the war, which ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
During this time, there were numerous weapons brought into Mozambique. Many of these weapons were hidden in the bushes and the various secret areas. Even though the armed conflict ceased in the year of 1992 (after the end of the cold war), the weapons were a continued issue for the country because of crimes (Museums of the world, 2019). The weapons were also used in solving conflicts.
Due to this, there was a need to prevent these conflicts from happening. In 1995, three years after the end of the civil war, Bishop Sengulane introduced a plowshare project. The idea came from Isaiah 2.4, which states, ‘They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.’ The name of the project was later changed to Transforming Arms into Tools. The Bishop was credited for the efforts to make peace in the country; he did only ensure the end of the civil war but also ensured a reduction in armed conflicts years after the end of the war.
He encouraged the Mozambicans to surrender their weapons. As a result, they will be provided with bicycles, plows, as well as sewing machines. The four artists will then cut the surrendered weapons and used the metals in making imaginative sculptures. The organization commissioned by Bishop supplied decommissioned weapons to this group of individuals, who used them in making different pieces of sculptures.
The British Museum commissioned the sculpture in 2005 after buying another one, called the throne of weapons (Museums of the world, 2019). Jane Spence, Christian Aid, took the sculpture to the British Museum as an exhibition where it is based since then.
Importance
The tree of life has a lot of significance to people around the world. It does not only offer a memory of the Mozambican civil war but also offer to celebrate individuals who decided to hand over their weapons for the sake of peace. These group of people includes children and women. The peacemakers stood up and triumphed over violence and conflicts that were destroying the lives of people in the country.
The culture of conflicts and crime should not be based on our societies. There is a need to remember the problems we faced in the past and build our future by not making past mistakes. Thus, the sculpture depicts a strong message for the future generations.
References
Museums of the world 2019. (2019). De Gruyter Saur.