Community turns to public art to grieve recent tragedies

In the weeks since the deaths of Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha, many who knew them have turned to art to make sense of death and remember life.

On N.C. State University’s campus, students can’t walk to class without seeing silhouettes of Chapel Hill shooting victims Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha, painted on the walls of the university’s Free Expression Tunnel.

Painted with a black backdrop and white silhouettes, the image causes onlookers to stop and remember the victim.

Somia Youssef, a junior at N.C. State and the education chairwoman of N.C. State’s Muslim Students’ Association, helped organize the repainting of the Free Expression Tunnel to honor the victims of the shooting.

Youssef said she believes murals are important forms of public art because they captivate the attention of all.

“It’s in your face,” she said. “You can’t not notice it. You may not care about it, but it’s an image, a picture, a painting, so you can’t help but stop and look at it.”

Hillary Rubesin, intermodal expressive arts therapist at the Art Therapy Institute in Carrboro, agreed that visual art, especially if displayed in public, can create a sense of community.

“By publicly expressing our grief, we are able to put our personal pain into the world, gather support from community members going through the same loss, make deeper connections within our communities, start important dialogues ... and incite public action toward social and political change,” Rubesin said.

Like those who painted the tunnel, a local artist is turning to paint to create a mural commemorating Dean Smith, the legendary basketball coach who died Feb. 7 at the age of 83.

Tray Good, director of the UNC Harmonyx, said he believes music allows both the creator and the listener to express their feelings in ways other art forms don’t necessarily allow.

“A lot of people can connect to music because it’s like putting your emotions and your feelings into words,” he said. “When you listen to it, it’s more soothing and more consoling.”

The Clef Hangers and Harmonyx both performed at Smith’s memorial service, Feb. 22, and Good said they tried to honor his legacy with their songs.

“The demographics of both (a cappella) groups are pretty different. The Clefs are all-male and predominantly white. Our group is interracial and coed,” Good said. “I think inviting both groups reflects what Dean Smith wanted to bring together in his lifetime.”

Youssef said she hopes to help people understand the lives of the victims through the #OurThreeWinners and #ChapelHillShooting hashtags.

“Social media is such a big part of our lives, so if someone were to go on that hashtag, they would probably be exposed to a lot of information that way,” she said. “There is a lot of information about (the victims’) personal lives with the hashtags. It’s to incorporate understanding.”

Rubesin believes art alleviates internal grief and lets the those who are grieving express their feelings to the world.

“The arts have the unique ability to express emotions when words alone fail,” she said. “The arts give us both a container to hold our grief, as well as the means to express it.”

arts@dailytarheel.com