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    EXAMPLE for Art Inspires Art

    Marwan Rechmaoui. Monument for the Living. 2001-2008. Concrete and wood. The Tate

    Collection. The Tate Modern. London, England.

    Zombie by The Cranberries. Album: No Need to Argue (1994)

    Another head hangs lowly

    Child is slowly taken

    And the violence, caused such silence

    Who are we mistaken?

    But you see, it's not me

    It's not my family

    In your head, in your head, they are fighting

    With their tanks, and their bombs

    And their bombs, and their guns

    In your head, in your head they are crying

    In your head, in your head

    Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie

    What's in your head, in your head

    Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie, oh

    Du, du, du, du

    Du, du, du, du

    Du, du, du, du

    Du, du, du, du

    Another mother's breaking

    Heart is taking over

    When the violence causes silence

    We must be mistaken

    It's the same old theme

    Since nineteen-sixteen

    In your head, in your head, they're still fighting

    With their tanks, and their bombs

    And their bombs, and their guns

    In your head, in your head, they are dying

    In your head, in your head

    Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie

    What's in your head, in your head

    Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie

    Although war is a subject widely explored in the worlds of art and music across a wide

    range, few pieces delve into war the way as Marwan Rechmaoui’s 2001-2008 statue Monument

    for the Living, and The Cranberries’ 1994 hit song “Zombie.” Rechmaoui’s statue is a model of a

    famous building called the Burj al Murr in Beirut, Lebanon. It was a beacon of power for the

    many political and social groups who used it over the years, and during the Lebanese Civil War

    (1975-90) it became a highly active sniper tower that left it damaged beyond use. After the war,

    the building’s size and proximity to the buildings surrounding it made it impossible to demolish.

    The Burj al Murr will still exist into the future as a reminder to the people of Lebanon of a

    conflict that never had a sense of unity afterwards. Rechmaoui’s model of the Burj al Murr

    captures its symbolism as a monument to a war that never truly ended and still affects the people

    of Lebanon today. The Cranberries’ 1994 song "Zombie” focuses on a different conflict, but

    holds the same theme. It was inspired by the 1993 bombing of Warrington, England by the

    Provisional Irish Republican Army as they tried getting rid of Britain’s influence in Northern

    Ireland. The bombing killed two boys and injured many others. The song references the death of

    the two boys and uses the term zombie as a way to point out that the conflict of war is an undying

    presence that affects the future generations just as much as the older ones. In this way, both

    Rechmaoui’s statue and The Cranberries’ song are the same; they both discuss how war is not a

    contained part of history. A war doesn’t just end with the people affected moving on as if

    nothing had happened, or living a now-peaceful life. War has lasting effects that carry forward

    and are, in most cases, irreversible. It’s as The Cranberries’ song goes, “in your head, in your

    head, they’re still fighting.” The psychological, economic, political, cultural, and personal

    ramifications of bloody conflict are long-lived, and should be talked about seriously.

    Citations:

    Braca, Nina. “Here Are the Lyrics to 'Zombie' by The Cranberries.” Billboard, Billboard, 8 Feb.

    2018, www.billboard.com/articles/news/lyrics/8096352/the-cranberries-zombie-lyrics.

    Tate. “'Monument for the Living', Marwan Rechmaoui, 2001-8.” Tate, The Tate Modern,

    www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rechmaoui-monument-for-the-living-t13193.

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