Occupy Wall Street Stifles Global Tourism and Shuns Reference to The Great Gathering
Posted: Tuesday, October 18, 2011
by Wayne and Judy Bayliff
the2writers.com
What started out in major cities as a gathering of unique and vocal groups with reasonable respect for property may slowly morph into an unruly mob set on senseless destruction that will inevitably strangle the golden-goose of tourism. Let us hope it does not happen.
Other than economic frustration, no one seems to know what glue is holding together the many disparate groups currently marching under the evolving banner of Occupy Wall Street.
The Occupy Movement has attracted millions of participants and sympathizers looking to improve their personal situation, but apparently without knowing how to go about doing it.
Important issues that involve us all
One cannot trivialize the frustrations of the Occupy groups. America and the world are in great need of social and financial mending, but as we seek solutions, we must hope that the outcomes will be rational and fair.
Those of us who are lucky to have jobs will undoubtedly continue to pursue them, always mindful of the millions that continue to struggle.
Analogy in Art
Recently we visited the tiny village of Sainte-Flavie in Quebec on the St. Lawrence Seaway. We stopped there to see an unusual exhibit of statues created by the master Canadian artist Marcel Gagnon.
It has occurred to some observers that Mr. Gagnon’s seaside art imitates life in times when political influence and preferences trump hard work and individual responsibility. The result is a drifting of fertile minds – or in this case, drifting figures.
The creative soul of Mr. Gagnon has fashioned a display of seemingly exhausted life forms emerging from some otherworldly place symbolized here by the St. Lawrence River. There are more than 100 life-size human figures staggering forward in loose order and heading somewhere, but none seems to know exactly where or why.
Le Grand Rassemblement
In French, the exhibit is called Le Grand Rassemblement, in English – The Great Gathering. The limbless humanesque forms are assembled, hopeless, helpless and with a countenance of despair. There is no leader; there are only followers that appear to search endlessly for something, yet nothing.
Every day, the tide mercifully drowns those closest to the sea, but like seaweed-laden zombies, they return from the deep each time the water subsides. They appear to emerge from whatever dark place they go to rest before being summoned to re-join their brooding comrades.
Gagnon created the first of these life-size reinforced concrete sculptures in 1986. They have been resurrecting daily from the river for 25 years and time and weather have only added to their forlorn appearance and misery.Each statue weights approximately 1,500 pounds, and not unlike the creatures they emulate, they are all different, and for some – like humans, the sunniest day has little effect on their mood or state of being.
This is art in epic proportion and unique in the entire world. Once seen, it will be remembered.
Be sure to view all our photos of Marcel Gagnon's seaside creations by clicking here.
If you go
Sainte-Flavie is located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. It is the westernmost point of route #132, which loops around the picturesque Gaspe’ Peninsula. You can get more information about Mr. Gagnon and his Art Center in Sainte-Flavie at his website http://www.centredart.net/
For more information about beautiful Maritime Quebec click on http://quebecmaritime.ca
Happy Travels and Happy Halloween.
© Travels with Wayne and Judy Bayliff
Photos © Wayne and Judy Bayliff
The longing, gaunt faces of those carved faces resemble the hungry, uninsured, dispossessed, homeless and unemployed in America, faces dazed by their leaders empty words and rhetoric.
I saw a license bumper sticker, on a car, not far from the Wall Street demonstrations, that had a chilling message, one which instantly leveled the economic 'playing field' between the 99% and the one percent; it read:
"Eat the rich".....
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