 "Photo: Levon Kafafian / For The South End")
 "Photo: Levon Kafafian / For The South End")
Once a month, the Wayne State student-run gallery, The Bud, holds a themed art show. Held this month on Oct. 7, “Active Art” was run in conjunction with the Detroit Iraq Moratorium.
The DIM is a group committed to supporting the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, according to public relations coordinator Sicily McRaven.
Although students are strongly encouraged to submit their artwork, anyone in the community can take part.
According to Andrea Zarzycki, art major and coordinator for the Bud, the idea behind this month’s “Active Art” theme was to have a “place for people to meet politically and artistically.”
Channeling the theme of art as activism, the various artworks sparked group discussion. In response to the exhibit “More,” Michael Dedenbach, a junior in psychology, vehemently stated that in war “you’re only fighting other people.”
“We cleaned out every dollar store,” said WSU alumna Courtney Spivak in reference to a particular piece of artwork spanning the length of the gallery.
Spivak, one of the six women who make up the Art Shop Girls, stayed up past four in the morning with the group arranging just over a thousand tiny green, brown, blue and grey toy soldiers.
Beginning their march at one end of the hall, the soldiers steadily increased in number, eventually clustering into a massive battle scene. A multitude of soldiers covered in blood and oil called to attention several questions regarding the situation in Iraq. What started as a school project, this arrangement of armed men titled “More” is part of a series of socially and politically critical works.
Adorned with dozens of disfigured appendages from old dolls, a spoken-word artist simply known as Tim passionately delivered two stirring poems by mid-evening. While the second spoke of blues in general, the first used brilliant imagery to convey present day Iraq.
Serving as the one and only garbage receptacle in the entire gallery, local artist Dennis Thom’s “McCain Trashcan” was a popular piece. Emblazoned with charged words regarding Republicans and oil, a mere wastebasket was made into a bold statement.
Speaking on both Republicans and Democrats, the most eye-popping pieces in the gallery were the individual renditions of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. Depicted as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, respectively, these paintings imbued many faces with interesting reactions.
