On Need and Necessity

"Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a soul?"

- Keats wrote in a letter in 1810 on the schooling of the mind, and the visual poet of today takes it upon him to create understanding through seeing. The World of Pains is reflected through a photo of the devastation as if it were a glass negative of 120 years ago while the tip of the key is transformed into a mended tent for the fleeing.

Need and Necessity are etymologically linked to poverty and torment on the one side and obligation and duty on the other - suffering and the duty to act in the very same word. The cartoon acts as the key with the bow turning to us: Where is the political solution?

Fadi Abou Hassan, July 9, 2015.

The cartoon shown is courtesy of Fadi Abou Hassan and must not be reproduced without his permission.