Intro

Hello my name is Jose Chavez and I see bullying as an act of terrorism within humanity. I think that terrorism doesn’t only happen between countries or nations just as we hear nowadays through television news or radio, but within our own territory as well. When it comes to violence it isn’t only through vandalism, robberies, gang related acts or wars where many get killed. Bullying is a type of violence operating within our society where the lives of many people are being terrorized through physical and emotional pain. Bullying just as any other life threatening act of violence is putting people’s lives in danger. Many individuals that are put down and affected by the menace of bullying become isolated from the crowd do to often being left out and ignored by the others around them and with this actions making some kids feel unworthy or less important than others kids. In some cases of bullying the damage caused by this issue can result in suicidal reactions.

I have created this art exhibition on bullying with all the intentions of putting the word out against bullying. I also want to communicate by it the significance that this issue is having against people. People need to know about the effects of bullying on a person’s life not just by hearing about it but also by visualizing and reading about this matter. Art is a great way to learn of this social issue because it gives the spectators the opportunity to think about the problem this issue is causing. The purpose of this project is also to make comprehend and explain the piece of art they are looking at beyond what the title or words coming from the image specifically say about it.

 

The Eyes

Summary:   Amrelshamy is an artist and filmmaker from Cairo, Egypt. Amrelshamy says he loves to practice all kinds and styles of art but his passion is in filmmaking. Amrelshamy is also a producer, cinematographer, a digital artist, cartoonist and clay artist. According to media he owns his own studio where he works as an artist and filmmaker. The name if the studio is “Hot Amr Studio”. Amrelshamy created a piece of art called “The Eyes” which was created with the means to be part of a Mural Project against bullying.

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The scenario of the piece contains fog, on the left top corner has brown and orange branches, trees and cars in the far distance. There is an empty parking lot and a kid walking by himself through this parking lot. The kid has a backpack around him and is carrying a lunch bag with him.  There is also a school bus parked on the lot. The sky is looking grayish and right in the center of the image, there are three gigantic monsters with horns on their heads. Have of their bodies are covered by the fog but the heads are visible to the kid that is walking towards these enormous horned monsters.

Analysis:  this art piece “The Eyes” defines bullying as monsters in school waiting for kids to arrive to attack them. The image involving giant monsters clearly suggests that there can be scary monsters in school where kids go to learn and play. Kids can become total monsters by how they act and talk and how approach other kids around them as well. The kid projects loneliness in school. The piece shows the kid not having anybody caring for his wellbeing. Another interpretation of the walking alone kid is that there can be a lack of attention from the kid’s parents and that this will make any kid and easy prey for anybody. The empty parking lot gives the feeling of nobody being around to keep the kid company. The whole scenario suggests that some kids might think there are kids acting up as monsters upon them and this is the way some kids may feel about school. For some kids school might be scary to go to.

I chose this art piece on bullying because it truly shows how bullying can affect people to the point where bullies can be so harmful and scary to others that they can become like monsters in the minds of the people that the bullies are picking on. I’ve been researching on bullying and I’ve been learning that bullying is nothing else but violence happening in the open eyes of many but ignored and categorized as unimportant. This image totally represents my social issue because the kid in the image represents many more that are feeling the same way about school as well. Many of this kids aren’t having fun in school due to tormenting and oppression by other kids. It is sad to know how a person can become a total nightmare to another person. Bullying needs to be stopped in order to save many lives.

Dear Dad

Summary:  Mooneye films is a film and video production company established in 2011. Mooneye films is an independent film company specializing in the production of community, corporate and event films. This company also works with shorts and features for offline and online audiences. Mooneye films produce all types of film and video including music videos, promotional videos, concert films, and weddings. It was written directed and edited by James Hardy and produced by Oscar Rhodes.

“Dear dad” is a short film about bullying and its consequences.  Scene one: involves a teenage boy at age 13 that wakes up in his bedroom and an alarm clock going off right at six a.m. The boy dresses up and leaves for school. This is a rainy day where this teenager has to walk on some empty streets. The boy passes by and alley where two other boys encounter him and approach him and throw him on the ground. Right after one of the boys empties his backpack on the wet ground the two attackers leave. During the assault, Tim is told he is a waste of space. A lady appears on the scene and she’s is talking with one of the boys. At this point they are at an office. The thirteen year old boy’s name is Tim and on his way back home, he encounters the bullies again Tim takes another street and the boys follow him. The leader of the two grabs him but the other boy tells the leader to leave him alone. The leader doesn’t listen and gets mad instead and punches Tim in the stomach.  The boy named Tim vomits do to the hit in the stomach. Tim shows pain.

Scene two:  is six a.m. in the morning again and one of them doesn’t want to molest Tim and tells the leader of the two to leave him alone but the other bully doesn’t listen and the alarm goes off as usual and Tim shuts it off as he normally does. Next Tim appears in the same alley again where he gets attacked by the two boys again and this time he gets pushed to the ground and kicked in the stomach again. The same lady from scene one appears talking to Tim and asking him the aggressor’s names to report them and make them stop. Tim tells the lady that she will never make it stop and stays quiet. The lady asks Tim to contact his dad and he says he can’t, the lady questions him why not, Tim gets upset and leaves the room.

Scene three: it is morning once again and the alarm buzzes off as every morning. Tim appears walking in the same alley once more again. The two boys that bother him every day walk towards him. Tim begs them by saying the word “please”. Right after that segment Tim is in a room with tears in his eyes and rolling down his cheeks, he has a sad face.

Scene four: it’s morning time and the boy Tim turns his alarm off as he’s used to. On his way to school and walking through the now well knows alley he takes to go to school, the two boys come across his path. Soon after, the same lady comes up on the scene talking to Tim. The two get into an argument over Tim needing to call his dad and the lady telling him not to make the situation more difficult. Tim says that the situation is not easy either, gets mad and leaves the room. Next Tim is his bed crying deeply and sadly. He starts to recall on the times he’s being hurt and attacked and molested by the two boys every morning and starts writing a letter. He addresses the letter “Dear Dad”.

Scene five: in this scene Tim is walking towards a bridge where right underneath it there are railroad tracks. Tim is looking very sad and while on the deck of the bridge he decides to climb on top of the handrails of the bridge. Tim slowly lets himself fall off the bridge.

Analysis:

Day 1: the first day we see it is rainy. Tim wakes up at a certain time every morning. He has a daily routine. The rainy day makes us feel sad and cold. The empty streets project loneliness and it makes Tim look vulnerable. The two boys in the alley are the bullies violating Tim’s life. Tim is being harassed by the teenage boys when he heads to school. One of the boys didn’t want to bother Tim at that time but that doesn’t exclude him from the damage they were causing Tim. This guy is guilty as the guy hitting Tim. He was watching Tim get hurt and did not do anything to stop it. This means that the person who bullies and the person who watches bullying being done and ignores it, is as responsible as the bully himself. This is something that often happens.

Day 2-3: on day two and three, the attackers are waiting for Tim and looking forward to hurting him. Tim wasn’t doing anything wrong to deserve being bullied. The lady in the film is a counselor from school trying to help Tim solve the problem. The counselor wants Tim to talk to his dad but he says he can’t. This gives the audience the impression that Tim doesn’t have a close relationship with his parents and in this case his own dad. The film shows the same routine over and over again.  It is morning time and Tim’s agony to go to school starts all over again. Tim gets attacked in the same place again and this time he shows signs of desperation by telling the bullies “please”. This is the first time Tim talks to the bullies since the film starts. The only thing Tim does is cry and continues his daily routine. This scene shows signs of insecurity from Tim when it comes to seeking for help. Tim doesn’t seem like someone who trusts others for help. This is the last time that the film shows Tim’s daily morning routine. The purpose of the repeated alarm clock going off at the same time every day was to shows that Tim was awake before the alarm clock when off. This means that Tim was lacking sleep time thinking about what was awaiting for him out there on his way to school.

Day 4: This scene shows us a sign of bullying which is a repeated act of aggression. A violent behavior towards Tim had become a daily routine in Tim’s life and he wasn’t doing much about it to solve it. The counselor tries many times to help Tim into talking to his dad about the situation but he would always say that he couldn’t do that. This shows that close relationships with our relatives is very important and that we need a special bond with people we can trust and ask for help. Tim needed help but didn’t trust anybody enough. Tim obviously didn’t trust the counselor either. This leads to Tim committing suicide. The letter Tim wrote his dad wasn’t to ask for help but to let him know about his drastic decision. Tim’s daily bullying aggressions towards him got him to the point of thinking that the best way or solution to solving his problem was by committing suicide. Tim decided to get on a bridge and end his life by jumping off of it. Tim never told on his oppressors and that costed him his life. From this scene itself we learn that bullying can and is destroying people’s lives on a daily bases.

This short film on bullying touched me very much because Tim’s story did not end up for the best. Tim ended his life by supposedly taking the easiest way out of the problem. There is a very strong connections between this film and my social issue. Bullying is known for being a repeated behavior of aggression towards a person. Bullying can damage people’s confidence towards opening up do to fear, and pain. Bullying can induce into committing suicide just like Tim did. This film on bullying shows how Tim was being bullying on a daily basis. It was a daily routine for the bullies to hurt Tim on his way to school. For Tim it was so emotionally and physically depressing to get up in the morning and head to school. Tim knew he was going to be hurt again, and again.

Bullies

Summary:  Emma Nostrom as a student from Queensland Essential Learning School in the state of Queensland Australia, she created an art piece on bullying which she named “Bullies”. Emma contributes to the Art Education Kit Website program of Queens Lands Essential Learning by uploading her art pieces which she uses to express her feelings. Emma did some research on the issue and used her own experiences as well.  

In this art piece there are eight people, four guys and four girls. Seven of them are made out of bad words and one is a solid shape. Some of these words are die loser, I hate you, you have no friends, I’m sorry I am too weak, whatever, I am not even sorry etc. They all are wearing ties around their necks. Seven of them   were given a specific bright color and one a pale color. These colors are blue, green, brown, purple, red, pink, and gray. Two guys are talking on the phone, two are just standing there watching, two are talking to each other, one is kneeling down and covering her face with her hands, and one is bending down and with his hand close to the kneeling persons head. The background of the image is black.

Analysis:  To me this art piece represents how the bullies became bullies do to violence around   them and against them. This image is saying that these bullies were once mistreated badly, called on bad names, verbally abused, insulted and also put down as to weak or inferior to others. This is what the bodies composed of words represent. People become bullies do to physical and mental abuse. This image clearly shows the bully attacking the girl kneeling down but also shows how the people just watching there not doing anything about it also contribute to the bully aggressions. The bright colors represent how well these people might think they are putting others down. The gray color on the girl kneeling down represent how miserable she is and feels being aggravated by her oppressors. The color gray represents not feeling bright or colorful. The ties on their necks tells us that not only children get bullied but adults too and not just within non-educated people but within professionals too. The dark background symbolizes obscurity and evil against the victim.

This piece of part indeed represents my social issue on bullying because it represents the two sides of bullying. The image shows that bullies were once abused by someone as well, whether physically or verbally mistreated by name-calling and or rejection and by this lowering ones’ self-esteem. Bullies also need help overcoming their past experiences and confronting their aggressors as well. The victim in this picture is being tormented by the aggressor and is taking peace of mind from her. As I mentioned in my essay on bullying this type of violence happens around people that don’t do anything about the abuse and that we should all care for the issue and how to resolve it. This art piece well fits with my research on the social issue because it is showing the victim, the aggressor and the people who witness the abuse and how all can become involved in the matter, and not do anything to stop it. This art piece focuses more on the bullies than the bullied. We often think about the victims of bullying but rarely about the bullies having been victims as well way before becoming a bully themselves. Bullies need our help too and instead of condemning them for the worst we should

Why I bully you

Summary: Shaun Robinson is an Emmy Award Winning Journalist, television host, producer and the author a book called “Exactly as I Am”. Shaun Robinson is also a television and digital content producer an entrepreneur and philanthropist. She was the co-host of the news show called Access Hollywood. Shaun Robinson is from Detroit, Michigan and currently stays in L.A. she received the “outstanding Coverage of Race & Ethnicity” award from Columbia University. Shawn Robinson produced and directed a poem called “why I bully you” as a clip video. This poem as a video was written by Gina lorning and the concept was by Shaun Robinson.

Part one: it involves teenage girls and there is a total of ten of them. They are from different races, African-American, Asian, American, and Hispanic. They are pretending to be bullies. They are talking mean to someone. There is lots of insults, some of these insults are, your fat, ugly, too tall, to short, stupid etc. there is laughing and angry faces. Hatred is spoken in this poem.

Part two: the girls are crying and yelling too. Some show sad faces. Some of the words told in this part are, powerful, ugly, imperfection, I want to fit in, I don’t like myself, nightmares, scared, my father hits me, gay, and I see myself in you. The bullies confess the truth to their behaviors.

Analysis:

Verse 1: in the first part of the poem the bullies are talking to their victims. The different races means that bullying doesn’t discriminate race. Anybody can become a bully not making them by his or her skin color, language, gender or race any less harmful. The insults told by these bullies are just how mean and offensive bullies can be to the victims. Words can be more lethal than physical bruises. Bullies often show enjoyment and anger to their victims to cause them fear. Bullies always pretend being cool and smarter than others, they try show being happy with who they are.

Verse 2: in the second part of this bullying poem, bullies aren’t proud of themselves. Even if these bullies pretend to be smarter and happier than the people around them, in reality that is not the way they feel about themselves. The insults in this part lest us know that bullies don’t feel good about how they feel inside and how they behave either. These people are showing weakness and inferiority. The meaning of the insults spoken in this part of the poem in this, that they bullies truly confess why they hurt others. The bullies confess that they bully because they don’t like themselves and this is not because they always felt bad for them but because someone else might have told them how they should feel about their personality. Someone in their lives forced them into acting with violence.

            When I found this poem online I right away decided I wanted to use this video as part of my ending piece of art in my exhibition because it reveals the truth on why the bullies treat other people badly.  The Confessions in this poem clearly testify that they themselves were treated wrongly by someone they knew. This poem connects with my social issue on bullying so strongly do to the fact that bullies were once the victims just as their victims now. Bullies don’t just become aggressors fun the fun of it but because violence around them. By these putting together this art exhibition on bullying I have learned that bullies along with the bullies they both need help urgently. Deep inside their hearts and minds they have both been victims of structural violence.