"Communities, Disaster & Change" is a traveling exhibition coordinated by the Valdez Museum and Historical Archive, in Valdez, Alaska. It provides a twist on the fiftieth anniversary of the Good Friday Earthquake commemoration through its connection with other communities and other disasters. The exhibit will travel around the state as well as to Oregon, and Hawaii. The full travel schedule and complete online gallery of the exhibit can be seen here.

This blog serves as a place to host a global conversation about the indomitable nature of the human spirit and communities' reactions to change, how they survive disaster and how they rebuild for the future. We hope this can be a tool for people like you, all across the world, to reach out and share your stories on survival and the will to carry on.

If you have seen the exhibit whether online or in person we want to know your reaction to the work of these twenty-eight Alaskan artists. Please join us in an ongoing conversation, and chime in with your thoughts, views and your personal stories of your community, disaster, and change.

27 August 2014

Artist Laments the Good Friday Earthquake

 By: Laura Johnston    Wednesday, August 27, 2014     No comments
Detail of Lament by Esther Hong ©2013
Esther Hong, an Alaskan based artist, participating in the Communities, Disaster and Change exhibition created her 32” x 48” piece from deconstructed canvas cloth. Her explanation of this process is “The process of removing each thread, one by one, is meditative and allows me a great deal of time to contemplate the project I am involved in. This seemed to me to be the ideal approach to this, my response to the 1964 tragedy.” Esther then weaves strands from her own hair into the deconstructed canvas. 

As abstract as Esther Hong’s piece is you get a sense that the later stages of her artistic process involved healing the broken down canvas. Which is true of the aftermath of any disaster. A long healing period must take place. Her piece is called “Lament.” How would you lament after a disaster? 
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