THis month, Art on the Underground, unveils a new work of art at Stratford Station, London, by the artist Kurdish Ahmet Öğüt, entitled Saved by the Whale’s Tail, saved by art. It was inspired by a metro accident outside Rotterdam in which the train exceeded the stop of the raised station, but was saved to dive into the water below by a sculpture 10 meters high of the tail of a whale, one of the two placed by the artist Maarten Struijs. There were no passengers on board and the driver managed to escape unscathed.
Was it only one-off? Has there been other works of art that played a rescue role? Or is their salvation potential only limited to the spiritual? Astrid, Coventry
Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.
Response Readers
Only one-off, due to an improbable disappeared coincidence. The capacity of the tail sculpture of the whales to endure the weight of the train without breaking was an unexpected stroke of luck – and it would never have happened at all without its incredibly serential location to what should surely be known as the Weight -Weigh station of Rotterdam. Over there
The art therapist Margaret Naumburg worked successfully with schizophrenic patients during the Second World War at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, using artistic therapy as a first line treatment. Allen Ginsberg was treated in the same way in the same hospital in 1949 and continued to have a career as a major and influential poet. Thomas Hennell recovered from a schizophrenic episode while painting a mural at the Claybury psychiatric hospital in the 1930s, and became a war artist. DAVE56
I am not sure that the spiritual is divorced from the physique. It is a continuum. Art was a thread throughout my life, to be old enough to hold a drawing implement. This allowed me to express myself, to explore the world and what is happening in my head, to move over time. It is a flow that I am, like a small boat on a river, which sometimes flows quickly and sometimes barely flowing at all, but always in the heart of whom I am. It saved me several times. Lorlala
Making art can save lives. Seeing art can be inspiring, but practicing creativity is the number of saved lives. I’m almost sure I wouldn’t be there yet without creativity. Kirangrango
There was once when a man was almost killed by a train coming out of his own fireplace, but fortunately, it turned out to be just a Magritte painting. maladministration
Olafur Eliasson uses art to educate the role of humanity in causing climate collapse, in particular using ice facilities for merger in world cities. Hopefully their expected impact could change some spirits, perhaps some influential, which could change the course of history … and stop the extinction of most species. wooden wood
If we include music, then yes, art can save lives. At 13, I decided to kill myself and put a suicidal album of trends while I was thinking about the best way to do it. I loved their music but I had never paid a lot of attention to the words before. But for the first time, as I stayed there, I listened to the words, which often dealt with the singer’s mental health problems. Realize that there were other people who struggled as well as I did not feel so alone and isolated. Hectormandarine
There was a study that showed that male suicide levels dropped considerably when a football world cup was underway. Even in countries that had not qualified. Whether it is a distraction, or a reason to get out of bed, or a community feeling, who knows? I think art would be positive for mental health under a similar idea. Pethebeat
Looking at a little pose on the question, there is Trump’s takeover of an art center in Washington DC. The artist and the public who boycotted the center can be a small contribution to the safeguard of lives if it contributes at the end of the Trump era. ICOMMENT THEREFORIAM
In 1984, I was a teenage dance student at the School of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh who was sent to visit a region far from the Cambodian campaign. At that time, the country was in the midst of a civil war in which the villages controlled by the government during the day were controlled by Red Khmer guerrillas at night. The government wanted to prove to its traumatized people that it was authentically Khmer. Thus, on his behalf, my traditional student colleagues in show arts and I have traveled along muddy roads on a bus, and organized dances and players in fields or village squares for farmers and other rural people. One morning, we had noodles on a market when the seller informed us that the Khmer Rouge fighters had come to our performance the day before armed with rocket launcher, with the intention of shooting us down. But they loved the dance so much that they stayed until the end, applauded and returned to their base without pulling a blow. Consequently, I can answer the question based on the first -hand experience: yes. Art can save lives. Sophiline Cheam-Shapiro, Phnom Penh
