With my photos I show the world through my eyes

I am always amazed when you give us a glimpse of your mind’s eye. The eye of an artist. That tree is perfectly placed to enhance the form of the statue. You have to wonder if it was accidental of not?

I saw an angry defiant man looking out at the world but I was unsure of the two crumpled figures in front of him. What I didn’t understand at the time was why they were crumpled and they seemed disconnected from him.

Now I see in the statue the Belgian view to German oppression and the Belgian resistance to that oppression.

I think the Belgians would understand the statue, the recent history is part of their heritage.

When I got home I Googled and found this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouvement_National_Royaliste

Which made me think the Belgians would probably understand the monument and that I was looking at it with English eyes and thoughts. This area of Belgium suffered greatly in WWII and I am reminded of the Kazerne Dossin which I visited last year.

https://cherryelsewhere.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/kazerne-dossin/

Whilst Googling ‘National Monument NKB’ I found the following link which I think you will like

http://www.dracomedals.com/Belgium-WW2-National-Royalist-Movement-Resistance-Military-Medal-00447.htm

At first glance, the angry-looking man, strong and sculpted in symmetric proportion, is almost OUT of proportion with the other 2 disfigured/imperfect figures, and has his arms folded above them rather than towards them – so my first feeling was “this statue is about oppression of the weak by the strong.”

But on second glance, zooming in to see where he’s “looking”, correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears he’s not really “looking” down at them, he’s looking over and past them, as if at someone or something else? Also on zooming in, I noted the “angry man” almost looks disgusted as well as angry – not sure if that helps either opinion

I was reading a book not long ago called “Heretics and Heroes” which goes into detail about how artists, especially during the renaissance and reformation in Europe, often give little passive-aggressive digs to their commissioners or culture that pass through without notice for payment.

Artists, being artists, and wanting to express all they felt, had to be told several times not to take things too far (especially with unpleasantness) or risk not receiving commission funding. As we know, artists don’t much care for restrictions – so at times, they “snuck in” little clues that told us the full extent of how they felt anyway, some of the meanings of which have been lost forever in history. The result of this was often “mixed message” or an unclear message for later onlookers that we aren’t clear on.

Perhaps that is the case with this later Belgian resistance statue? Most casual onlookers never notice, Cherie, good eye – and it very well may be the artist just wasn’t a very good one – but it could be that it’s meaning was so much more than it appears but has been lost. Supersleuth Cherie on the case, however, may find it some day

I am quite au fait with the view that art should elicit thought and feeling from the viewer, but random, fractured incoherent thoughts, juxtaposed and contrary, with mixed feeling all over the place seems to me to be a failure of meaning.

It could do with a written explanation.