Farewell to Arms
- Yael Lichaa
- Oct 7
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 6
The Vision for RAZ Land's Art Exhibition: Weapons of Mass Construction
Hemingway’s Farewell
When Ernest Hemingway published Farewell to Arms in 1929, he gave the world a title that would outlive the book itself. More than a war novel, it was an elegy for love, loss, and the futility of violence. The words still echo nearly a century later: farewell to arms.
But what does it mean to truly say farewell? To lay down weapons, both literal and metaphorical, and step into a different kind of story? Hemingway’s novel doesn’t hand us easy answers. It lives in paradox: tenderness woven through brutality, intimacy discovered in the shadow of destruction.
That paradox is still ours. We live in a world where everyone longs for peace - yet war remains a constant, repeating in a vicious cycle. Perceptions shift mid-battle: yesterday’s enemy becomes tomorrow’s ally, today’s victor is tomorrow’s oppressor. Who is right, who is wrong? In the smoke of war, the lines blur, and in the end, no one truly wins. Even the victors lose - a piece of their humanity, a piece of their soul.
Farewell to Arms is not just a novel. It is a question that has never been answered.
The Hidden Code of Peace
Based on Kabbalah, the 72 Names of God have unique meanings. They are combinations of letters - sacred triplets said to encode divine energies. Each sequence opens a doorway into a different vibration of consciousness.
One of them, Mem-Bet-Hey (מב״ה), is interpreted as the power to remove weapons, dissolve hostility, and make way for peace. It is the kabbalistic vibration of farewell to arms - embodying the possibility of disarming conflict and opening the path to reconciliation.
Together, they are more than letters. They are an invocation: a reminder that conflict can be transmuted, that violence can be dismantled, that humanity has the power to say goodbye to its own self-destruction. Those who align with this Name are said to become chariots of peace - carriers of a higher current that can move through families, communities, and even nations, steering us away from discord toward dignity and understanding.
But just like Hemingway’s paradox, this Name is not a quick fix. To invoke the code of peace is to wrestle with the truth that while peace is within reach, we so often turn away from it. The code exists, but do we choose to use it?
From Spectator to Creator
This tension between destruction and creation is at the heart of our exhibition, Weapons of Mass Construction.
At RAZ Land, our mantra is From Spectator to Creator. We believe art is not just a mirror of the world, but a force that shapes it. Every brushstroke, every sculpture, every performance is an act of resistance against passivity. To create is to choose life over decay, connection over division.
In this exhibition, weapons - symbols of violence and domination - are reimagined as tools of healing, love, and radiant creation. What was once designed to break becomes something that builds. What once silenced becomes a voice. What once destroyed becomes a seed for renewal.
Each work is an artistic embodiment of the code of peace - rendered in paint, in metal, in movement.
The Questions We Must Hold - And Where They Lead
And yet, we must be honest. Art does not erase war. It does not dissolve injustice overnight. We still live in a fractured world where violence repeats itself across generations and across borders.
So we ask:
If we all long for peace, why do we keep waging war?
Where is the truth when every side claims it, and when perceptions shift in the very heat of battle?
What do we win, if in the end we lose a piece of our humanity?
The answers will not be found on the battlefield. They emerge elsewhere - in the act of creating, of imagining, of refusing to be passive. They emerge when we choose to build rather than break, to tell stories rather than silence them, to see not the enemy but the human.
This is why art matters. It cannot undo a war, but it can interrupt the cycle of dehumanization that makes war possible. It can remind us that truth is not possession, but relationship; that victory without humanity is no victory at all; that peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creation.
In this sense, every artist in this exhibition offers not just a question, but a response. The artwork is a living proof that transformation is possible - that even weapons can be reimagined as instruments of healing, love, and radiant light.
A Collective Farewell to Arms
Weapons of Mass Construction is not just an art show. It is a communal act of imagination, a rehearsal for what it might look like to live without weapons. Each work on the wall, each installation, is a gesture toward a greater vision: a farewell that is not passive but generative.
Because to say farewell to arms is not simply to abandon the tools of destruction. It is to transform them. To take the very energy of conflict and redirect it into healing, connection, and creation.
This is our collective task - that one day, humanity will have the courage to not only put down its weapons, but to turn them into something else entirely.
Until then, let this exhibition be a signpost, a spark, a living invocation of the code of peace. A farewell to arms. And the beginning of something new.
Helps us transform this vision into reality and grow its impact. Your support brings this exhibition to life:
For values-aligned organizations: please check the Corporate Sponsorships Proposal.
Calling All Artists - Your Invitation to Create
This exhibition is not complete without you. If farewell to arms is to be more than a phrase, it must be embodied by artists willing to transform vision into matter, pain into power, destruction into creation.
We invite you to bring your work into this collective act of building:
Theme: Weapons of Mass Construction - reimagine the tools of destruction as instruments of healing, love, and radiant creation.
Media: All are welcome - painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, performance, digital art, mixed media.
Submission Deadline: February 1, 2026
Opening Night: February 15, 2026, 2-6 PM
Exhibition Duration: February 15, 2026 - May 29, 2026
Location: RAZ Land, 1046 S Robertson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
Commission: Works will be available for purchase; RAZ Land retains a 40% commission on sold works. Artists are encouraged to price accordingly.
How to Submit:
Send up to 3 pieces for consideration, along with title, medium, dimensions, year, and a short statement (max 250 words) connecting your work to the theme. Include your name and contact info.
📧 Submit to: info@razland.com
📧 Subject line: Weapons of Mass Construction Submission - [Your Name]
This is more than a show. It is a gathering of builders, visionaries, and creators who dare to imagine a world beyond weapons - a world where art becomes our most powerful act of resistance, resilience, and renewal.
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Because peace begins with dialogue - and every voice matters.
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