Embroidering the Effects of War

The recent events concerning Libya, the brutal attempts of dictator Gaddafi to regain control of his country and the Western allies’ air and missile raids against Colonel Gaddafi’s military made me think a lot about the consequences of war on art, culture and fashion.

The only thing that the fashion industry seems able to do every time there is a major catastrophe is indeed appealing to people to donate money.

After the earthquake, the tsunami and the radioactive alert in Japan, hiding under the very fashionable cloak of religious sainthood, style and fashion sites and blogs started suggesting readers to donate money to charities, but essentially didn’t spark any debates about the effects of climate changes or about nuclear power.

Mind you, after the first appeals they are now back to talk about easy breezy styles for the Spring/Summer season, while maybe we should be focusing on styles for the nuclear fallout.

Yet there are ways the fashion industry could provide intelligent opinions and tackle contemporary problems and catastrophes as well.

After the news from Libya started arriving, the work of Arosah Yaseen, a student aged 17 from Sir William Ramsay School in High Wycombe, came to my mind.

Yaseen was one of the runners up (together with Jim Johnston, also aged 17) of the 2010 Saatchi Gallery/Sunday Telegraph Art Prize for Schools (the first prize was awarded to Harry Churchill, aged 12, for his montage works about Auschwitz and Hiroshima atomic bomb).

The winners of the award were chosen in January by a judging panel including the photographer Mary McCartney, Yinka Shonibare, the Turner Prize-nominated artist, Margot Heller, the director of the South London Gallery and Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Sunday Telegraph's chief art critic.

Yaseen explored in her work the effects of war on people and places embroidering on pieces of white fabric military scenes, soldiers in combat and bombings.

The textiles pieces heavily rely on a narrative structure since they show a story using embroidered images and also include some text. In a way these pieces have the emotional depth and relevance that lack in many current artworks and fashion creations.

While these works may not be compared to the Bayeux Tapestry and to its intricate scenes representing the Norman Conquest, the final purpose – recording significant historical events in cloth – is the same. So fashion designers and artists should maybe pay attention. Yaseen's works are currently showcased on the 2nd Floor of the Saatchi Gallery.

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