I didn’t get to New York City last week to repatriate my Evilution panels. Instead, I watched the TV in horror as Hurricane Sandy left a trail of devastation along the coast of New York and New Jersey. As it sent a 11 foot surge of seawater into lower Manhattan at high tide my heart sank. Four of the my five panels, honoring the innocent victims of conflict, were in the basement of St Peter’s Church near ground Zero. The fifth is now part of the permanent collection of the National September 11 Memorial Museum three floors below the World Trade Centre just two blocks away.
So ironic I thought, that my works (symbols of man’s destructiveness) may now have been destroyed so close to ground Zero, the catalyst for their creation and by a force greater than man can create. Or maybe, as some have already pointed out, man did have a hand - by destroying vast areas of rain forrest.
And what of my friends in Manhattan and New Jersey I thought. I cannot contact them, so are they without power, heat, water, phone contact and the basic necessities for survival?
Last night I received the first replies to the many e-mails I have been sending. One friend has lost his home in Brooklyn -- see photo of him and his family surveying the wreckage. Other friends are well but living in what they describe as a ‘war zone’ with shops running low on food. The only piece of good news is that the panels were not flooded at the church. I still cannot contact the museum. As I hear more and revise my plans, this page,will be updated along with my website and Facebook pages
