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Children have very little control of these adult,
political situations but, nevertheless, they are the ones that suffer the most, because they are the ones that can’t do anything about it. this world and then the artists are called in to make it beautiful again… around my 30s or so, people wouldn’t want to hear what artists had to say. So when the opportunity to do The Troubles came along, I said to myself, ‘this is the perfect piece to make it clear that artists have to get involved with media.’” There’s a powerful duality to Resurrection’s photographs, largely down to Levine’s ethos of capturing people, not politics. On the one hand, these shots encapsulate a very specific moment in time, acting as invaluable historical documents that transcend any twodimensional textbooks. On the other hand, these uncontrived scenes of children playing in the street, peeking out from politically-charged flags (the terrorising properties of which they remained, at least in that moment, blissfully unaware) is strongly reminiscent of today’s conflict zones and the innocent victims they continue to ensnare. Levine is not only aware of these parallels – he was mostly drawn to re-working the photographs because of these present-day turmoils. “The thing is, I wouldn’t have done this piece – or wouldn’t do any piece – if I didn’t feel that, immaterial of whether it’s talking about something in the past, it does address some issues of the moment. It has to do that, and whatever it’s addressing, that work of art has to make some contribution to the way you see the subject. This is a series about Northern Ireland, but you could put it into Syria, into Iraq. It is, in fact, the same kind of issue. Children have very little control of these adult, political situations but, nevertheless, they are the ones that suffer the most, because they are the ones that can’t do anything about it.” Resurrection’s curator, Johanne Mullan, couldn’t speak more highly of Les’ creative collaborations with IMMA – but this subject strikes a particular chord, considering that she grew up in Belfast whilst the Troubles were unfolding. “I personally have such a strong affinity with Les’ work – that sense of honesty in his documentation is really important to him. I know myself, growing up in Belfast [during the conflict] life felt perfectly normal. It’s only really when you step away from it, like when I moved down to Dublin, that I realised just how abnormal it was.” At 83 years young, Levine is well and truly tapped-in to the zeitgeist. Having witnessed the staggering ascent of technology first-hand (his ground-breaking work having helped it along), his take on social media and its trajectory is Resurrection (19722016) is running in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Military Rd from February 15 - May 6. searingly accurate, citing the eschewed value systems that can be shared at the touch of a button. “It’s obvious that social media has done as much harm to society as much as it has done good. The tribalism it has produced is pretty scary – everybody has become a member of some kind of tribe, and this tribe is against that tribe. Because of the enormous speeding up of send-receive transactions, there’s no doubt that it has taken on an Orwellian quality. It’s not just big brother is watching, it’s now big brother, big mother, big daddy and your nanny watching, and it’s ripping the political system apart. Haters are joining haters at a faster rate than lovers are joining lovers.” If one thing is certain, Resurrection has all the right ingredients to start a conversation away from digital screens, irrespective of who the spectators are – but any online commentary it does end up triggering (as it invariably will) would only cut through the artifice and champion human-to-human connection. “The main purpose, for me, of a work of art is to awaken the humanity in the person looking at it. I am not, in a sense, like other artists because I don’t take a position like, ‘I do this for myself and I don’t care who cares about it’. I work for the public – that has always been my view.” 71