In Sight of Spirit Strong

This artwork emerged from my feelings that followed a devastating fire that swept through Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, London, during the early hours of 14 June 2017. At least seventy two people lost their lives whose names are memorialised below:

Marco Gottardi
Gloria Trevisan
Raymond Bernard
Fathia Hassan
Hania Hassan
Rania Ibrahim
Hesham Rahman
Mohamed Neda
Fathia Ahmed
Abufars Ibrahim
Esra Ibrahim
Zainab Choukair
Mierna Choukair
Fatima Choukair
Bassem Choukair
Nadia Choucair
Sirria Choucair
Firdaws Hashim
Yaqub Hashim
Yahya Hashim
Hashim Kedir
Nura Jamal
Anthony Disson
Mariem Elgwahry
Eslah Elgwahry
Ligaya Moore
Mehdi El-Wahabi
Nur Huda El-Wahabi
Yasin El-Wahabi
Faouzia El-Wahabi
Abdulaziz El-Wahabi
Mary Ajaoi Augustus Mendy
Khadija Saye
Malak Belkadi
Leena Belkadi
Farah Hamdan
Omar Belkadi
Jessica Urbano Ramirez
Gary Maunders
Deborah Lamprell
Ernie Vital
Marjorie Vital
Mohamednur Tuccu
Amaya Tuccu
Amal Ahmedin
Amna Mahmud Idris
Fatima Afrasehabi
Sakineh Afrasehabi
Isaac Paulos
Hamid Kani
Biruk Haftom
Berkti Haftom
Vincent Chiejina
Mohammed Hanif
Mohammed Hamid
Husna Begum
Rebeya Begum
Kamru Miah
Khadija Khalloufi
Josef Daniels
Sheila
Steven Power
Denis Murphy
Mohammed Alhajali
Jeremiah Deen
Zainab Deen
Abdeslam Sebbar
Ali Yawar Jafari

Over seventy more were hospitalised, and countless injured, physically and psychologically. The twenty four storey high-rise tower block of mixed private and public housing flats was home to around six hundred, many poor, and often marginalized people with diverse ethnicities. Those who lived at Grenfell Tower were loved by a community of family and friends that number in the thousands.

Although 'In Sight of Spirit Strong' touches on the fear and confusion of this terrible event, it does not show those caught up in it as victims, but rather people with intention and strength, no matter their form. I choose not to see those who lived at Grenfell Tower as casualties, but as silhouetted spirits: vibrant, purposeful, powerful.

Art is often an expression of chaotic feelings that have not found voice in the open air of language. In its uncertainty, abstract art can encourage the search for meaning and at the same time, through its ambiguity, brings nourishment to the precarious heart.

The beauty of art, as with life, is that it is not always clear.

A full size extract from the artwork follows: