Locals Deal With Grief, Loss Through Art

The staff of the Ackland Art Museum met after Sept. 11 to discuss how the museum could use art to reflect current sentiment. A decision was made to exhibit artwork that was relevant to the tragedy from the museum's permanent collection of 15,000 works.

The first piece to be displayed was a photo titled "Fire Company Group Portrait," taken sometime during the 1870s by an anonymous photographer.

According to Andy Berner, assistant director of development at the Ackland, the photograph resonated with the community.

"One way (art helps) is on an individual basis, where it's not necessarily having conversations but it's a way to go by yourself and just look at what other people have created and try to think about what things they were thinking about," Berner said.

The Ackland added a 1973 photograph of a Puerto Rican cemetery by Minor White and a 5th century Indian sculpture, "Head of a Disciple of the Buddha" to the rotation of artwork.

The museum's attempt to elicit a public response to these pieces was only one example of art serving the community. On a smaller scale, individual artists painted, sculpted and crafted in order to deal with their personal feelings.

Hunter Levinsohn, a former director of the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission, was compelled to begin new artwork as the reality of the terrorist attacks sunk in. She completed a mixed-media piece titled "Weapons of Mass Destruction" shortly after Sept. 11 -- it depicted the planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

While the creative process for that piece was emotional for Levinsohn, the depiction of the attacks was clear enough in her mind.

During the nation's recovery, she also reflected on her own pacifism and thought deeply about the pictures of the hijackers she saw in Newsweek. In doing so, she wondered at societies that "throw away their youth."

"I didn't see men," she said. "I saw boys."

With so much on her mind, Levinsohn didn't end her Sept. 11-related work with "Weapons of Mass Destruction." More recently, she has been contributing to The 5,000 Flowers Project, which has called for artists to create floral images in honor of the victims of terrorism.

She has also begun working on an as-yet-untitled piece that features Osama bin Laden flanked by the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers. She said a lot of the art that was inspired by the attacks is just now coming out.

According to Levinsohn, the art world has been altered by the attacks in the short run. But she doesn't believe that one event can affect an artist's life permanently.

Artists across the state such as Amanda Nichols were distinctly affected. Nichols, a freshman in the N.C. State University College of Design, who was working on an art project when the terrorists took action.

The tragedy drove her to produce a collage, "Faded Glory," which shows the debris from the Sept. 11 attacks graying the once-vivid red, white and blue of the American flag.

"I was really devastated and looking for a way to deal with it," Nichols said.

"Creating art is how I was able to cope with my emotions."

Nichols was a student at Leesville Road High School in Raleigh when the planes hit. After she finished the collage, she submitted it in An Artistic Discovery, an annual art competition for high school students sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives. After winning first place, "Faded Glory" then was brought to Washington, D.C., by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., and hung in the corridor of the U.S. Capitol.

Closer to home, a group of UNC students collaborated on a series of plays that dealt with a single word closely related to the events that followed the attacks.

"Patriot" ran from March 22-26 in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theater, but it was in October that director Jeremy O'Keefe asked six fellow students each to write a play. The resulting works shared the same cast of two actors and two actresses.

Senior David Chapman, one of the six writers, said "Patriot" involved a mixture of funny, serious, traditional and abstract productions.

His own play focused on a typical U.S. airport following the attacks. Chapman explored the heightened security measures and the new ways in which airline employees and passengers interacted. He saw U.S. airports as new Ground Zeroes -- boiling points of fear and suspicion.

"I think overall people got a lot out of it," he said of the collection of plays. "It was a very thought-provoking piece of theater because it was very current, even in March."

Even now, more than a year after the attacks, artists continue to find light in their work so that they might combat the remaining emotional darkness.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.