Forge, Robert Carston Arneson

Here you can see a powerful piece of art made by Robert Arneson with a strong message about nuclear war and radiation. In Arneson’s lifetime, he had many hardships and struggles. But one thing particularly changed his life, cancer. This has inspired his art, but also had a negative affect on his life. “Forge” struck me as unique. I didn’t expect to see a piece of art like this in the museum.It isn’t beautiful like you would expect a piece to be when you visit a museum. It forces the viewer to look at the face of death caused by war. War is something that can happen anytime in the world. Forge shows us the horror and gore that soldiers face on the battlefield. This piece reminds me of the innocent people who are being killed or seeing their family members being killed right in front of them. These are just some of the situations that soldiers and civilians face during war. This spring I visited the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington DC with my Future City team. Touring that museum exposed me to some of this same terrifying imagery of what humans are willing to do to one another in the name of politics. In my English class, we are currently reading the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel where we are learning from the first person perspective what it is like to try to survive a dehumanizing experience. In my eyes, Forge shows me a person being exploded by a cluster bomb and the opposing soldiers carving “Nuclear War” on his forehead with a knife. The anvil represents the battlefield and the hardships. This piece should warn us and tell us a story of how quickly our lives can be taken from us. It shows us how individuals and families and entire countries can be destroyed in the blink of an eye. The artist Robert Arneson got cancer from radiation. Arneson managed to turn that personal war with disease into a masterpiece of art that makes us all think about what war can steal from us in a heartbeat. Thank you for listening to Suret Sultan with another Bulldog Art Tour.