Dayna Talbot

The Power of Remembrance, 2020

Silk, flax, wire, wool, various other fibers Variable/Installation

I was a flight attendant for United Airlines on my way to Boston for a medical procedure when I heard the news of the planes hitting the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I lost 35 friends and colleagues that day. The Power of Remembrance project began three years later when United offered employees a company-wide leave of absence and I enrolled in a BFA program. Not fully realizing it, I had begun a 20-year project of unraveling and documenting my 9/11 grief and trauma. I began working with structures and fibers in graduate school at Lesley University. This installation brings full circle my aesthetic response to the tragic attacks on 9/11. It was during grad school that art became my form of meditation, I honor my colleagues and all the victims by creating these totemic forms. The four columns stand for the two United and two American Airlines planes. The columns are composed of 3,000 pieces of shredded and rewoven silk, each unique strand honoring one of the individuals who died in 9/11. Additionally, 35 handmade felted vessels hold 35 souls, one for each of the United and American Airlines employees who also died that day. The vessels were made to my specifications by me and several collaborating SDA artists contributed vessels. The installation memorializes them by recreating a unity of body and spirit. It provides the viewer with a place to reflect on this national catastrophe and to mourn in tranquility and peace.

Dayna Talbot

The Power of Remembrance, 2020

Dayna Talbot

The Power of Remembrance/Detail, 2020

Silk, flax, wire, wool, various other fibers Variable/Installation

I was a flight attendant for United Airlines on my way to Boston for a medical procedure when I heard the news of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. By the time I arrived at the hospital, I’d learned about the second plane, and I knew from training this was terrorism. I lost 35 friends and colleagues that day. The Power of Remembrance project began three years later when United offered employees a company-wide leave of absence and I enrolled in a BFA program. Not fully realizing it, I had begun a 20-year project of unraveling and documenting my 9/11 grief and trauma. I began working with structures and fibers in graduate school at Lesley University. This installation brings full circle my aesthetic response to the tragic attacks on 9/11. It was during grad school that art became my form of meditation, I honor my colleagues and all the victims by creating these totemic forms. The four columns stand for the two United and two American Airlines planes. The columns are compose

Dayna Talbot

The Power of Remembrance/Detail, 2020

Dayna Talbot

The Power of Remembrance/Vessel Detail, 2020

Silk, Wool, Flax and Paper Variable/Installation

Thirty-five handmade felted vessels hold 35 souls, one for each of the United and American Airlines employees who also died on that day. The vessels were made to my specifications by me and several collaborating SDA artists contributed vessels.

Dayna Talbot

The Power of Remembrance/Vessel Detail, 2020

Dayna Talbot

In Solace, 2020

Ecoprinted, burned and dyed, and stitched with artificial sinew on Evolon 30" x 22"

"In Solace"was made for a community project titled "Marking Covid Lives". The project conceived by artist Elizabeth Awalt to commemorate American lives lost to COVID. In Solace consists of at least 1,000 marks to depict the thousands of lives lost. The process of burning and rusting is meant to show how destructive this disease has been, the stitching represents our strength to heal and mend our lives. As we continue to fight this pandemic the hope is that we come together to combat this disease.