Impact of Art on Society
Today there is no such person person who has never faced the arts. Art surrounds us everywhere: graffiti, murals, street performers, theatre, shop signs, architecture, film, music. Each of us came across one from the list at least once in his or her life. This is not a secret that any type of art carries information, that the author has put in it. Some art may carry a huge amount of information, some less. Which type of art bears more information text or images is an issue that needs to be sorted out. Let's look at this issue on the example of an installation by Paul Cummins titled "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red» dedicated to the anniversary of the end of World War I. According to CBSNEWS (2014) the imagery, created by Cummins was "made up of 888,246 ceramic poppies» where "each ceramic poppy represents a soldier who fell in World War I». What we see here is the author's attempt to show and convey to the viewer the tragedy of the war through the image of a red poppy, which is coupled with the rest and looks like a «Sea of Red». As for me, this is quite a powerful image where one picture consisting of a variety of puzzles, transmits all the pain of that time. Would reading out the names of the total number of dead soldiers have the same effect as this installation? Controversial question. I think reading of eight hundred eighty eight thousand two hundred and forty-six soldiers would be very lengthy and would not have had such an influence because the complete picture of the incident would be lost. According to ABC7NEWS (2014) the installation by Cummins was a must-see exhibition that "officials have been asking people not to visit during peak hours" and "subway station closest to the tower was shut down due to overcrowding several times this week." From these data it is clear that this work of art was seen by hundreds of thousands of people and most of people were affected equally. I believe that information carried in this installation would have left more of an impression than the soldier's name, torn out of context.
References
ABC7NEWS (2014, November 2) Stunning Red Poppy Display Honors Fallen WWI
Soldiers. ABC7NEWS. Retrieved from: http://abc7news.com/news/stunning-red-
poppy-display-honors-fallen-wwi-soldiers/377629/#gallery-6
CBSNEWS (2014) Sea of Poppies at the Tower. CBSNEWS. Retrieved from:
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/poppies-at-the-tower-of-london/
