Artwork of Swissair crash unveiled
Last Updated 2003-05-02 00:00:00.0

Rebecca Zandbergen, CBC News

HALIFAX - The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia unveiled two pen and ink drawings Thursday of a future art exhibit paying tribute to the Swissair crash of 1998.

A dozen drawings of the crash by well-known Dartmouth artist Tom Forrestall will be on display late August.

The flight crashed off Peggy's Cove, killing all 229 passengers and crew. After the crash, Forrestall contacted the RCMP to get access to pieces of the wreckage so he could draw them.

He said he would give the art to the RCMP. They donated the artworks to the gallery.

The two drawings shown Thursday were of the undercarriage of the aircraft and a barely recognizable image of what was left of the captain's seat.

"A photograph is always a particular thing, whereas these drawings in some ways move into the universal," Forrestall said.

"You might say they're drawings of all plane crashes that ever were."

Jeffrey Spalding, director of the art gallery, said he was confident Forrestall would know how to approach the topic responsibly.

"There is the risk that in the wrong hands it could be exploitative, it could be sensational.

"I think it's quite evident, that Tom Forrestall, in his slow, methodical and thoughtful way, has tried to piece together some sort of order in utter chaos."

http://www.cbc.ca/artsCanada/stories/crash020503

Sure wish more "out there" would focus their interests in other directions - where they would really matter.

Just what we need... ANOTHER "memorial" dedicated to this aviation disaster that could have/should have been prevented.

Does anyone in Canada, or anywhere else for that matter, have any clue at all what these sorts of things might do to the family members, even all these years later?

Don't suppose that matters much though... afer all, look at all that has happened post 2 Sept '98, along these lines.

Yeah, right... "tasteful". For who?

IP I agree. This is very tasteless but I don't suppose there is a darn thing we can do about it.