Artist Statement

Scars of Torture

Bryant Lewis

My art piece is a painting on a 20 x 24 canvas. It is primarily black with streaks of two different reds. The red streaks are meant to resemble cuts, and the darker one red is somewhat healed wounds. I used a large brush for the black background and a smaller one for the scars.

The social justice issues my artwork addresses is the fifth right explained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights– No Torture. While researching this topic, I learned about many issues worldwide, but Guantanamo Bay was the most interesting to me. Based on the pictures I saw, it looks like a WW2 concentration camp, so it is pretty much just a prison that looks like a concentration camp. It was built in 2002 and has become a symbol of injustice, abuse, and disregard for the rule of law. 

One of the emotions I'm trying to show is the pain that people who have been tortured in any way have been through. I learned much about government torture and other forms of torture that Article 5 taught. Through my art, I'm trying to convey that torturing can do many things to even a single person, and I hope others will learn just how wrong torture is.