News: Talk on posters about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
received March 4, 2004, from Dan Walsh
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Middle East Institute invites you to a Lecture by Dan Walsh, Liberation Graphics:
Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism...Antonyms or Synonyms?: An American Primer
A "dizzyingly new perspective", is how the Washington Post's cultural editor summed up the new online exhibit Antonym/Synonym: The Poster Art of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict ( liberationgraphics.com ) which translates and interprets poster art from Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, Zionist and a galaxy of international sources. Since the end of World War II, disagreement over the precise definition of the terms "anti-Semitism" and "anti-Zionism has been submerged and discussed, if at all, mostly by scholars and lexicographers. Since 9-11, however, the absence of any universally agreed-upon understanding of these two gateway terms, and more importantly, their conflation, has created a raging controversy that has significant ramifications for Middle East studies, foreign policy, domestic efforts to combat anti-Semitism and grassroots political activism, both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian. Poster artists, however, have been developing a visual vocabulary that offers a unique opportunity to explore the role art plays in enriching, maintaining and expanding democratic principles, both in the US and in the Middle East. Dan Walsh, curator of Antonyn/Synonym, will discuss the role of art in revolution and its impact on language.
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