Date: 1983

Description: The linocut print features a red square of clasped hands which surround two figures also holding hands. In green text below is a quotation from pope John XXIII: `Love not fear must dominate the relationship between individuals and between nations’.

Paul Peter Piech was a US artist of Ukranian descent who settled in Britain after meeting his wife in Wales while he was posted there as a GI in World War II. He created many linocuts which brought his own images together with quotations from famous sources.

Size: 43.5 x 76 cms.

Therefore our Object of the Week is a banner which was used during the Iraq war protests between 2002-03. It reads “No Attack on Iraq” and was produced by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Second Glance demonstrates that artists’ perspectives, often at odds with the dominant narratives of our world, pose a powerful challenge to realpolitik ideology. Salima Hashmi’s Rain 1, inspired by the opening of a number of crossing points on the Line of Control between India and Pakistan after the horrific Kashmir earthquake in 2005, is also a comment on the fact that it took a cataclysmic natural disaster to bring the two countries, however briefly, together. Nils Burwitz’s Caustic Art is a response to the infamous practice of necklacing with burning tyres in South Africa and the ugliness and hatred spawned by an apartheid state. Yinka Shonibare’s Climate Shit Painting explores the conflict between the environment and us in the seemingly relentless march to “progress”.

Kyoko Takahashi and Anna Lambert’s ceramics reinforce the importance of our connections with the natural world, whereas Jessica Ball’s tongue in cheek Stirring the Pot is a reminder of how using sport to promote peace can often get sabotaged by the self-interest of the nations involved. Will Dawson and Asad Hayee’s miniature depictions of creatures of fable remind us that animals both mythical and real connect us in very powerful ways to the world of the imagination and are important to our sense of harmony and balance.

Clive Barrett, Chair of the Trustees of The Peace Museum says:

“The Peace Museum is very pleased that our newly acquired works of art will be seen in such a beautiful space. The exhibition encourages people to pause and reflect on the nature of peace and conflict in a year when we are hosting the Olympics. I would like to thank all of the artists involved for contributing to this discourse in such varied and imaginative ways. I would particularly like to thank the artists Arpana Caur and Salima Hashmi for their generous gifts of work to The Peace Museum”.

Nima Poovaya-Smith, Director, Alchemy and exhibition curator says:

“This was an exciting exhibition to curate. The wide-ranging nature of the exhibition theme gave us the freedom to bring together the works of very different artists, many of whom normally may not have been shown together. This has created a fascinating dynamic between the works”.

Second Glance is a partnership between The Peace Museum, Alchemy, Rydale Folk Museum, and Bede’s World, Jarrow. The exhibition has been conceived and curated by Alchemy.

Exhibition showings

Second Glance will be showing at Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton le Hole, North Yorkshire from 18th February – 18th March 2012 and at Bede’s World, Jarrow from 23rd March – 8th May 2012.

Date: 2005

Description: The book is The Girl from Chimel by Rigoberta Menchu Tum, the winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, which she received “in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples”.

The book is the story of a young girl growing up in the Mayan community in Guatemala. It is a story based on the author’s own life before her world was torn apart by war and genocide.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

It features a red square of clasped hands which surround two figures also holding hands. In green text below is a quotation from pope John XXIII: `Love not fear must dominate the relationship between individuals and between nations’.

Paul Peter Piech was a US artist of Ukranian descent who settled in Britain after meeting his wife in Wales while he was posted there as a GI in World War II. He created many linocuts which brought his own images together with quotations from famous sources.

The linocut was created in 1983 and measures 43.5 x 76 cms.

To vote for us please  click here.

Artwork by Bob and Roberta Smith:

So why not get involved and tell some stories to friends and family!  Our Object of the Week is embracing the idea of storytelling (although we can’t read it out loud to you unfortunately!).  It is a book called The Girl from Chimel by Rigoberta Menchu Tum, the winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, which she received “in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples”.

The book is the story of a young girl growing up in the Mayan community in Guatemala.  It is a story based on the author’s own life before her world was torn apart by war and genocide.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Please Click Here to view.

If you would like to sign up to recieve the newsletter via email please fill out the form on the right of this page.

Date: 1980s

Description: The poster has a blue background with white stars and yellow stars which are connected to create a shape which appears to be a dove. The poster was produced in the USSR in the 1980s and the writing on it reads “The Cosmos For Peaceful Use”.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]