Notes on Conflict
Through a creative lens...
Conflict. Friction, disagreement, clash, discord. Humans actively trying to damage each other over beliefs, rights, resources, land, relationships, contested versions of past, present or future.
Conflict. Sparks discomfort, resistance, judgement, hurt, quarrels, intractability, hatred, rejection, retribution, suffering, oppression, intimidation, dehumanisation of other or self. Summons the bogeyman, the shadow side, Shiva the destroyer, taking form in weapons arsenals, crusades, war, genocide, femicide.
Conflict. As commodity in newsfeed streams, gaming, social media. Spawns the normalisation of violence, the numbing of pain, disassociation and a space of binaries: self/other, me/you, us/them, wrong/right, innocent/guilty, powerful/powerless. Demands we stand on one side of a wall or the other, show loyalty, conformity.
Conflict. As psychological dynamic, internal landscape, as that part of ourselves we see in others we cannot tolerate. A place of unbearable vulnerability we might need armour for - or do we risk it, travel defenseless? Will this ensure our safety, dissolve walls, lead to resolution?
Conflict. As opportunity, stepping stone, necessity. Certain levels of conflict as mutually beneficial, addressed through acts of accountability, mediation, witnessing, truth and reconciliation. May lead to repair, the possibility of resolution, breakthrough, peace-building..to justice, equity, freedom.
How do I/others work with conflict, as writers, artists, performers?
As storytellers and way finders, we… devise new languages to communicate, offer reflection, question, provoke, see through dividing walls into other spaces, then show you that seeing as poetry, image, lyric. Allow our subjectivity to be a bridge, knowing the personal is political. See the ‘I’ as We. As you, as them. Strategise, organise, resist, refuse the binary, cultivate nuance, play with paradox.
Offer our work up as creative resistance, activism, manifesto, a reach for change. A weapon of mass non-violence. A whisper, song, scream, shout, a co-creation, a reclamation. Occupy the cultural frontlines, stand for justice, disrupt the status quo, voice diverse and paradoxical perspectives, amplify unseen voices and realities. Cross borders of language, culture, race, gender and place. Use the relational as creative medium – stepping into the skin of a stranger and out again, then reporting back, to foster empathy, cultivate compassion.
Work with the existential, from the inside out! Act as a mirror to ourselves, others and society - who we have been, are – or aspire to be. Re-story contested pasts, honouring those erased by dominant narratives. Speak the unspeakable. Listen, bear witness, create rituals, initiate dialogues and encounters, reimagine and activate a future beyond the horror, despair and oppression, past the end of days narratives. Away from the death-pull. Act as brokers of the invisible, exploring and sharing what it is to be human, here and now.
In all this, embrace uncertainty, as we reach for the possibility of peace, as we ferment… hope.
Adapted from ‘Through a Wall: the role of the artist, activist and academic in addressing belief and conflict – a Provocation’ by Alinah Azadeh. Performed at Kings Cultural Institute, London 2015 as part of a research project with Kings, 3FF and funded by Arts Council England).