achieves a
remarkable likeness with hard-edged industrial materials.
Behind her is a colorful, graphic depiction of a ghostly,
winged death-angel with skeletal face firing a machine gun. Flames animate
from the gun. The mechanical animator creates a cacophanous sound simulating
machine gun fire.
"It is my response to the September 11th terrorist attack,”
says Lakich,“and the breakup of my 15-year
relationship. I felt vulnerable and needed to assert my power.” In Self-Portrait
with Spectre she confronts one as a powerful Amazon, gazing
directly into the viewer’s eyes.
Lakich created drawings for the sculpture at the
end of September 2001 using a photo of herself taken by Richard Jenkins (co-founder
with Lakich of the Museum of Neon Art) and the insignia of the AC-130 Gunship,
which was one of the Air Force units sent to the war against the Taliban in
Afghanistan. She completed the sculpture in May of 2002.
In July of 2002, an AC-130 Gunship fired upon a wedding
party in Afghanistan killing 48 civilians and injuring over 100, mostly women
and children. In keeping with Afghani custom, the groom was not to join the
party until the next morning. He arrived to find he had lost his mother, father,
three sisters and four brothers.
While not issuing a formal apology, President George W. Bush
called the attack a tragedy.
Link to Habeas Corpus & Other Valentines exhibition catalog pdf file:
https://acrobat.com/#d=jJZxTWjHSwbsKkdRgPTH0A
