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.