Art, at its best, shows us truths about ourselves and the world, challenging us to turn toward what we might otherwise seek to avoid. A series of recent attacks and seemingly random death in places long considered havens—schools, bars, community centers—has forced us to grapple with the particular brutality of unpredictable harm. Does art have a role to play in a society where violence is an ever-more present reality? What truth can art show us now? And are we prepared to see it? Even as it confronts us, can art help us cope? To coincide with an installation featuring the work of Thomas Hirschhorn, Rhodes College art historian David McCarthy, ceramicist and Gulf War veteran Ehren Tool, and writer, curator, and professor of Visual Studies at the California College of the Arts Karen Fiss visit Zócalo to discuss whether, in violent times, art provides a vestige of protected provocation.

 
*Image courtesy of YoTuT/Flickr.