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| Commemorative Print - Shepard Fairey (2011) |
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| Inspiration photo of PCV Catrin Martin, Senegal, 2009 |
Teaching Peace: 50 Years of Hard Work
By Michael D. Winans
On March first, 1961, John F. Kennedy signed “Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps” (1). 50 years later, Shepard Fairey would produce a print to commemorate that act, supporting 200,000 Peace Corps volunteers who have served in 139 countries - one of which was his sister who served in Togo ( Peace Corps, “50th Anniversary”). The commemorative print depicts a white Caitrin Martin, a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) who served in Senegal (Peace Corps, “Caitrin Martin”), and a black boy in the thick of crops looking deeply into a flower cupped by the PCV. The flower’s petals surround a peace sign, that radiates a yellow sunburst. The background contains three cultivated fields of crops before the eyes meet a tri-peaked mountain. The image is flanked on all sides by thick line of a muted orange, which at the bottom is also used to form the words “Peace Corps” separated by Peace Corps logo in yellow and muted black (Fairey). This image depicts that peace needs to be primary in our lives and be taught, understood, and accepted if we are to progress and attained mutual respect across cultures, races, and genders, and that Peace Corps is doing the hard work to further this idea in developing countries.
As the woman and boy are looking deep into a flower, the flower is radiating its yellow light onto everything that is living - the humans and the plants. In this way, peace is represented in place of the sun where it is a primary need in our lives, but unlike the sun that hangs in the sky, unconcerned with what is happening on earth, peace is represented by a flower. It is delicate, and precious but can also create an environment where life can thrive.
Several binaries exist in the image since binaries are a simplified representation of social thinking. These binaries help to show our starting point, and then hard work needs to work, to progress, away from this point and attain mutual respect across cultures, races, and genders in pursuit of development. The first obvious binary is male-female, with the female in the traditional role of teacher. There is also the binary with the white volunteer who is showing the flower to the black boy who has his hand on his chin, depicting genuine interest. This racial binary is built atop perceived cultural and developmental differences: North-South gap, first-third world, developed-undeveloped, or even civilised-uncivilised. It seems, in an effort to move past neo-colonialism, we are sending our men and women out to these developing countries to help them and teach them about this novel new concept of peace. Lastly, it invokes the us-them binary, one seems to support the Peace Corps’ model and may become a new starting point for progress in the future.
The image tries to show that education is also key to the Peace Corps. The PCV is showing the boy something, he is genuinely interested in what she is saying. It seems that despite contradictions of the Peace Corps, their mission and volunteers are on the ground doing the hard work of educating about development with a message of peace. These two people are in a field, learning together in isolation. In the role of teacher, she is educating the boy, not just about development, but also about herself because the boy has to first respect her and her situation before he is willing to be engaged and taught. She is also wearing a bandana which is used functionally to keep the sweat from your eye during, and representative of, hard work. Bandana on, like Rosie the Riveter before her, she is ready to do the hard work required to get the job done. Teaching peace and development so that it is understood and accepted and the global community can progress together.
This image is very powerful in the way it represents so many important themes for the Peace Corps. The yellow that is depicted as a sunburst from the center of a flower represents peace as a life-sustaining need. The powerful binaries that contrast difference also work to represent the point from which progress is moving. Finally, education is key. It is only when we understand that peace is primary in life, that we are able to mutually respect one-another and value our differences. Education can be the catalyst for this understanding and the Peace Corps’ 200,000 volunteers have been on the ground in 139 countries, bandanas on, ready to do this hard work.
Works Cited
Fairey, Shepard. 50 Years of the Peace Corps. 2011. Silk-screened print on French Cream
Speckletone paper.
Kennedy, John. “Establishment of the Peace Corps.” Executive Order 10924 of March 1, 1961.
Print.
Peace Corps. Peace Corps Releases 50th Anniversary Commemorative Print. 2011. Web.
Peace Corps. Caitrin Martin in Senegal. 2009. Digital Photography. 