JoAnn Moran
Korea, 2' x 2', acrylic on wood panel, $225
The 1953 Armistice did not end the war but included all parties suspending open hostility and withdrawal of all military forces and equipment from a 4,000-meter-wide zone, establishing the Demilitarized Zone. The US brokered the armistice agreement that permitted no new weapons -- including nuclear and other advanced weapons -- to be brought onto the Korean Peninsula. In January 1958 the US placed nuclear-tipped missiles in South Korea. It was not until September 1991 that the US removed approximately 100 nuclear weapons from South Korea.
Past agreements in 1994 and 2005 with North Korea show that diplomacy was a possible route to nuclear disarmament. More recently there are talks of peace, of once again removing weapons, threats, and troops from the peninsula. North and South are willing and say they want to officially end the war. But will the US allow it? Will we remove our weapons? Will peace by war be our official stance - or will we support Peace by Peace?
Compilation and opinion of JoAnn Moran with historical information derived from lectures of Noam Chomsky and excerpts from Correcting History: Five Things No One Wants to Say About Korea, By Ted Snider
The artwork depicts doves flying in bomber formation. It is a reflection of those who see beauty in war and military power. The choreographed armed marchers in North Korea and birds of war transposing the notion that bombs, not peaceful negotiations, are the only way to overcome conflict and disagreements. But overwhelmingly it is the doves that make the image, consistent, pervasive, dedication to nonviolent action against war is the duel and duality presented in these artworks.
JoAnn Moran is a muralist living in New Haven and sometimes on her sailboat. She produces murals by commission or leading participatory projects for schools and communities. She has worked with over 60, 000 people of all ages and abilities in towns and cities in the US and abroad to support positive social change.
Artist Statement
My work in the public sphere seeks to create inclusion in the practice and purpose of art and art making. Specializing in coordinating community participation projects, I am a founding member of ART25, a project that seeks to expand public engagement in the arts. I truly believe art-making is a unique experience that shapes us as individuals and societies.
Projects like ART25 liberate art and the artistic experience from its "proper" home in museums into everyday life. I see the value of art more in the process, of working out resistance and conflict rather than attaining perfection. In the words of my philosophical hero John Dewey “Mere perfection in execution, judged in its own terms in isolation, can probably be attained better by a machine than by human art.” Do we really aspire to be more machine or more human? . . . . .Got ART?