TSUNAMI

Tsunami Paradiso Canto II.
Life-size silhouettes of figures fleeing from the Tsunami are cast in thin iron. These shadows are inscribed with the names of the thousands who lost their lives in the disaster. As these figures are touched by the viewer and sway in the wind, they become the runners between this world and the next. The flatness of the figures was inspired by the distinctly flat, rather than ‘fleshy’ Adam in Paradise
from Massaccio’s Adam and Eve.
In 2008 the first set of sculptures was realised in
bronze rather than iron.
The engraved text is from Dante Aligheri’s Paradise, Canto II. The full text is only visible if you read the letters written in the air between the sculptures. This
specific passage links the events of the Tsunami disaster with Paradise in a more profound way. In Canto
II the idealised and beloved Beatrice takes the author through Paradise. Read more