November Issue 2001
Artists Respond To September 11th at Merrill Jennings Gallery in Davidson, NC
In times of great turmoil and change, we look to our writers, composers, filmmakers, and visual artists to comment and help us make sense of events that seem senseless. It is no wonder that the terrorist attacks of September 11 have already inspired artists working in all media to express their grief, as well as their hopes for the future, each in his or her own distinctive way. Popular musicians have introduced new songs on television fund-raisers, and on-the-spot photographers have produced a moving portfolio of images that chronicle the unfolding drama.
And make no mistake; from coast to coast visual artists are also emerging, after a kaleidoscope of stunned first reactions, to interpret the event.
At Merrill-Jennings Galleries in Davidson, NC, during the annual Magical Mystery Show, featuring surrealism and fantasy art, two exhibitors have provided works directly related to the day that changed our world. The Magical Mystery Show will be on view through Thanksgiving.
Gallery partner, Susan Jennings, whose recent works include Carolina lake scenes and landscapes, put aside her favored subject matter to create two large oils on canvas in reaction to 9/11. Both works include gold paint glazed over with soft transparencies that belie the violence of the event. Escort is an abstract, nurturing, angel-like image which hovers over the torn girders of the fallen Trade Center. The girders themselves evoke an eerie, cathedral presence.
Daedalus Rising, by contrast, is a more realistic rendering of a powerful male spirit lifting from the New York skyline, with the Trade towers indicated not as substance, but as thin trace lines from ghostly moments past. Of this painting, Jennings says, "One of the most familiar Greek myths is of Icarus, whose wax wings melted when his exhilaration carried him too high and near the sun. This painting concerns Daedalus, who watched in horror as his son plunged to the sea, just as we witnessed the tragedy of September as steel arms melted and thousand of human souls were lost. Daedalus, architect of the Labyrinth, rose out of his sorrow and continued his journey, as we must seek passage through this present labyrinth of grief and terror."
Laila Farcas-Ionesco, an internationally recognized surrealist originally from Romania, has contributed several paintings with themes directly related to September 11. Of these, her oil painting Requiem For Those No More, is best described in her own words, "This painting describes the enormous feeling of loss, helplessness and shock felt by the human and humane part of the population of our planet at the onset of a great threat to peaceful life. After a great loss, in order to move ahead and leave the pain and suffering behind, there must be a period of mourning. We each experience pain and uncertainty in our a common streak that unites us all. The ones that disappeared against their will are invisible balls of light. When faced with tragedy of apocalyptic dimensions, we begin to extrapolate our own misfortune and commiserate with the collective consciousness, throughout the ages. This painting deplores the base reality of brother killing brother, since time immemorial."
While these paintings clearly communicate loss and sorrow, they also evoke a powerful spiritual optimism and a sense of unity. Perhaps these positive forces are at work in America and around the world, helping us to accept not only our common mortality, but also our common humanity, joined in the universal goal of peace.
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