“Empty Walls," a piece of artwork written by Serj Tankain was released September 10, 2007. Serj had an important message through his lyrics, which was specifically directed towards U.S. citizens. Not only did Serj use his lyrics to get his message across to Americans, but his video helped, too. His video used a lot of symbolism. Serj’s goal was to inform citizens about the government putting censorship on the war, and “blinding” them from the reality of the war between America and Iraq.
In the opening of the lyrics, it seems as if the government is speaking to the U.S. citizens, telling them not to waste their time, and if they listen to the government, everything will be okay. Naturally, U.S. citizens do this without conscience. As long as they have the thought of being safe, they feel secure. “Don’t waste your time, on coffins today,” these lyrics are explaining the time period of when showing caskets of soldiers was banned across media. The government sets up these “empty walls” in order to protect the citizens, but in the end, the “walls” do not protect. They really just block everyone’s view of the damaged outcome of war and of the continuously increasing number of people dying, which is the reason why the walls are considered “empty.” In the section following the opening, Serj is reaching out to the citizens asking if they are aware of what is occurring behind the “walls.” “Don’t you see their bodies burning?” (Tankain, 2007). Do they know what is being hidden from them behind the “walls”? Do they know the true reality of what is happening behind the “walls”? The “walls” that are supposed to protect them? The government does not want Americans to know the ugly truth behind the war, the reason for the “empty walls.”
Reading the lyrics to the song may seem very intense with Serj’s diction choices. For example: burning, dying, intoxication, choking, etc. By reading the lyrics, it seems that his song would have a very depressing tone just by the word diction. The desperate questioning, reaching towards his audience leads to the impression of a depressing, slow, alternative song. After listening to the song itself, the tone immediately changed from the first assumption. The tone changed to more of fast paced, rock song. The fast pace made the song have a more intense feeling about his message.
The video itself is an artwork. It made the message so much more meaningful and stronger than it already is. The video really helped Serj reach out to his audience to reveal the graphic images that are being hidden from U.S. citizens by the government. During his video, he was located at a daycare surrounded by innocent children playing with their toys. Serj begins singing the song “Empty Walls” to the children. The children begin to play to the lyrics of the songs. They act out the conflicts between America and Iraq. The video uses symbolism representing the historical past events that occurred during these invasions.
The first symbolic invasion being exposed was 9/11, the tragic day when the U.S. towers were taken down by two planes flown by Iraqi terrorists. The symbolism was shown through a little innocent blonde girl playing with blocks. She had just finished building with her blocks, “the twin towers,” when a boy decides to throw his toy plane into her blocks, knocking down the “twin towers.” The girl’s expression was filled with anger after her blocks had been knocked down. She proceeds to receive help from another child in order to get her revenge. She goes to a boy with a toy tank; this shows the symbolism of U.S. invading Iraq.
In another scene, the children were pulling down a large teddy bear while standing on an oversized block with rope, symbolizing Saddam Hussein’s statue being pulled down. The following scene shows a child standing in front of a chalkboard with the phrase “Mishin Akomplishd” on it, symbolizing the accomplishment of the U.S. capturing Saddam Hussein. Children began to break into other children’s playhouses. They kick down the doors of the playhouse and drag out the children inside. The children located in the playhouse are begging the other children to not shoot one of their own with silly string, but they follow along with their procedure by spraying a boy with silly string. This scene symbolizes the U.S. invading Iranians homes and killing them.
The scene following the invasion of the homes is a little boy in a toy car getting pushed by another boy into a ball pit. When the collision occurred, confetti flew up in the air, symbolizing the revenge of the Iranians suicide bombing the U.S. army checkpoints. All the children are lying on the ground as if they are dead. When a bell rang the children arise. The children and Serj approach the window to a depressing sight. They look at the window seeing a casket of a former soldier being carried into a van by men in uniform. This window symbolizes the “empty wall” protecting the American society from the truth. The use of children illustrating these events showed how the events between U.S. and Iraq were childish. Iraq invaded the U.S. and killed people, upsetting Americans. In order to get revenge the U.S. invades Iraq and kills the Iraqi’s. These actions are similar to when a child pushes another child and the other child repeats the action.
Serj was very creative at revealing the ugly truth about the government. Serj wanted to let Americans know that the government is putting censorship on war and “blinding” Americans from the reality of the war between America and Iraq. His message was very compelling and powerful. Not only was the song influential, but the video was as well. The diction choice of his lyrics was very meaningful and effective. The video finished off his message. The song used a lot of symbolism representing the historical events that occurred. Serj was successful at getting his message across to his audience.
