In Sight of Spirit Strong

For those who lost their lives at Grenfell Tower.

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

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.

. . .