grant us the power of detachment / that our
fragmented selves will know purpose / ethereal love, spiritsense, of which the physical can only intimate / freedom from this flesh, that i may observe the balance of nature
The photograph above is particularly expressive of the argument that I would like to make, an argument that I hope not to be too abstract. Would anyone reasonably think that these young Palestinians are actually attempting to destroy with stones this Israeli army watchtower in the West Bank? What about when tanks and bulldozers are being stoned? It would be ridiculous to think so. Stones are like words, they don’t destroy walls, towers or any other heavy military equipment; they are used to manifest their antagonism against their target — the fact that the stones thrown are fragments of a disputed land is certainly highly symbolic too. Stones are tracers that designate that against which they stand politically, and their trajectory materializes the relation between the thrower and his/her target. Visualizing this relation, like on the photographic intervention below, allows us to think of the reciprocity of its effect. The violence of the Apartheid follow the same trajectories onto Palestinian bodies and applies itself with a much greater degree than the stone-tracers.
Throwing a stone might be seen as an act of despair, a useless form of resistance against an unmovable colonial system. However, it is a performative act — perhaps even a cathartic one but I am already talking outside of my element here — that materializes the Apartheid relation through its trajectories and that resolutely refuses the useless status of victim, to prefer the one of resistant, however little the effect. The fact that the Israeli government recently took measures against the stone throwers allows us to think that, despite the narrative they provide to the Israeli state for its pretended defensive agenda, this effect affects more the state of Apartheid than the stones’ small impact on concrete and steel would commonly suggest.
Kiyohiko Azuma is a manga artist perhaps best known for his series Yotsuba&! about the naïve 5-year old Yotsuba who humorously stumbles her way through life. Stylistically, Yotsuba is always drawn more cartoonishly while her surroundings take on a different, more realistic look. And the astounding level of detail that can go in to some of Azuma’s backgrounds can render them as standalone works of art.
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