Now is the Time to Say Nothing
3 stars
This article was followed by an interview with the makers, available in the Arts section.
What to say for Now is the Time to Say Nothing? Now is the Time..., is primarily a piece of artwork about relationships. Although there is a focus on the relationship between one group of Western teenagers and a Syrian artist-turned-refugee, it forces the audience to confront their relationship with the terrible images that haunt our television screens every time there is a news bulletin concerning conflict. It encourages the viewer to look past the pornography of suffering, explosions and death, and put oneself in the position of someone enduring the sheer brutality of the Syrian civil war. As opposed to abstraction and passivity, it aims to generate empathy.
The artwork was located in an intimate setting, with a small audience of ten or so people. Each member of the audience was given a pair of headphones, an armchair and an old-fashioned television set, through which footage was played. I am sure this was intended to simulate the isolation in which we experience the news, although of course in this day and age, we are far more likely to be reading about the conflict hunched over a smartphone on the tube than in a genteel living room.
I found several other stylistic choices also rather odd. In order to simulate snowfall, for example, a fan gently sprinkled small bits of paper around the room. Removing the paper from my hair afterwards was frustrating, and the sheer unnecessariness of it further annoyed me. The brief attempts at profundity, speculating about static on the television as remnants of the Big Bang also wound me up as more unnecessary additions. The concept of how we engage with modern conflicts through the medium of news is surely profound enough without adding Bryan Cox into the mix.
The area where the art succeeded most of all was the footage. I don’t think I’ll be able to forget the video of one of the artist’s relatives breaking down during the conflict. Reem Karssli is masterful with a camera. I also thought that instructing audience members to cluster cross-legged claustrophobically close to one another on the floor to simulate a sea crossing in a small boat was rather interesting. However, this technique did rather depend on effective audience participation, something that could not be relied on as two members of the audience ignored the instructions and just did their own thing.
Overall I think, as a piece of art, it is mediocre at best but the message that it is sending is hugely important. As opposed to the version of conflict we are used to, a war reporter with a flak jacket standing in the wreckage of a school next to a bearded man in battle dress clutching a Kalashnikov, breathlessly wanking himself off about how close to the frontlines he is, Now is the Time to Say Nothing provides an alternate vision. That of the civilian, forced to relocate due to a brutal conflict. Although not brilliantly executed, this remains an important piece of art.
