Ellen Harvey
“We live in a world that often feels as though it is vanishing before our eyes. Places we love disappear. Places we have hoped to visit cease to exist. The forces of war, time, ideology, greed and natural disaster are constantly remaking places that we love but cannot control or save. The Disappointed Tourist comes from the very human urge to physically repair what has been broken. It makes symbolic restitution, literally remaking lost sites, at the same time that it acknowledges the inadequacy of such restitution. It was inspired both by old postcards of lost sites and by the tradition of tourist painting – both the paintings produced for wealthy tourists to take home and the touring paintings that allowed pre-photographic viewers to experience far-off places. It attempts to honor the trauma underlying the nostalgia that results from our collective and individual losses while celebrating human attachment to places both real and aspirational. The goal is to create a level playing field in which personal losses and larger cultural losses can meet and be recognized and hopefully create a positive conversation about our love for our physical environment.”
— Ellen Harvey, 2020
The Disappointed Tourist. Video by Ellen Harvey.
BLACK WALL STREET, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Destroyed 1921
“Black Wall Street” was the name given to the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of the most successful and wealthy majority black communities of its time. It was destroyed on May 31 and June 1 of 1921 by a white mob that had originally assembled to lynch Dick Rowland, a black teenager who was being held in the jail on suspicion of assaulting Sarah Page, a white fellow elevator operator, despite the fact that she had declined to press charges. When armed black residents arrived to support the sheriff, shots were fired and the white mob started to shoot. What was eventually called the “Tulsa Race Riot,” “The Black Wall Street Massacre” or the “Greenwood Massacre” included machine gun and aerial attacks on the community resulting in the loss of almost 200 businesses, a school, several churches and over a thousand homes. There is considerable dispute about the total loss of black life, with estimates ranging from 55 to 300; there seems to be consensus that there were 13 white casualties. According to the Red Cross, 183 people were hospitalized, 531 required first aid and 10,000 people were left homeless. Despite the indictment of 85 individuals, no one was convicted for any of the deaths, injuries or property damage and the victims did not receive any compensation. It has been called “the single worst incident of racial violence in America” but until recently, it was almost entirely omitted from the history books. In 1996, the State Legislature authorized the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission to create a historical account of the event. This led to the creation of a memorial park and scholarships for some of the descendants; it did not lead to the payment of reparations as recommended by the Commission.[1]
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Monument for Ms. V
This painted monument is dedicated to Sandra Santos-Vizcaino who died on March 31 of covid-19. She was the first public-school teacher in New York City to die of the virus. She was an immigrant, arriving from the Dominican Republic when she was 11. She graduated from Bard College and Long Island University. She was survived by a son, a daughter and her husband. She was only 54.[1]
I knew her when she was my son’s beloved 2nd grade teacher at PS 89. Ms. V, as she was known, was a force of nature. She loved poetry. She was a religious woman and I hope she would like this painting of the Plague Column in Vienna. It has a kind of warmth and drama that reminds me of her.
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1. “Those We’ve Lost: Sandra Santos-Vizcaino, Beloved Brooklyn Teacher, dies at 54.” New York Times, April 7, 2020.
TEMPLE OF BEL, Palmyra, Syria
Destroyed 2015
The temple of Bel or Baal was a temple dedicated to the Mesopotamian god Bel in AD 32. It was considered to be the best-preserved temple in Palmyra, demonstrating a remarkable synthesis of Roman and Near Eastern Architecture. The interior was famous for a carving of the seven planets and of a procession of camels and veiled women.[1] The Islamic State detonated explosives in the temple on August 31, 2015.[2]
Suggested by Maggie P.
Image source for painting: Bernard Gagnon/Wikipedia Commons.
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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Bel
2. https://archinect.com/news/article/135569973/isis-attacks-second-ancient-palmyra-temple-this-month
FERHAT PASHA MOSQUE, Banja Luka, Bosnia
Demolished, 1993. Rebuilt 2016.
Ferhat Pasha Mosque, (also Ferhadija or Ferhat-pašina džamija), was built in 1597 on the order of Ferhad Pasha Sokolović. Tradition has it that he used the money paid by the Auersperg family for the head of General Herbard VII von Auersperg and for the ransom of his son after their defeat in battle. There is no record of the architect but legend has it that Ferhat Pasha locked the builders in the minaret after its construction so that they could never build anything else as beautiful; fortunately for them, they grew wings and flew away. It was considered to be one of the greatest treasures of Bosnia and Herzogovina’s 16th Century Ottoman architecture and was a protected UNESCO site. The mosque was blown up on the night of 6–7 May 1993, along with several other mosques in Banja Luka, by the Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War. The mosque has since been reconstructed and reopened in 2016.[1]
Suggested by: Anonymous
Image Source: Old postcard image. No copyright.
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OASIS CAFE, Key Biscayne, Florida
Destroyed in Fire, 2017. Reopened.
The Oasis was a beloved small café in Key Biscayne serving famously good Cuban coffee that was destroyed in an electrical fire in 2017.[1] It has since been rebuilt.
“We always used to get croquetas and fresh juice here when we were much younger.”
Suggested by Mo R. & Ruby R.
Image source for painting: Sent by contributor. Unable to determine photographer.
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1. Viglucci, Andres. “The Oasis, Key Biscayne’s iconic Cuban hole-in-the-wall, is destroyed by fire.” Miami Herald, January 23, 2017.
HOUSE BY RACHEL WHITEREAD, London, U.K.
Demolished 1994
House was a temporary sculpture made by British artist Rachel Whiteread. With the support of the arts organization Artangel, she cast the inside of a to-be-demolished house in concrete and then carefully removed the exterior bricks to reveal the interior. The house was one of a group of council homes that had been slated for demolition and had recently been vacated by Mr. Sidney Gale who had lost his fight against his eviction. The work was both celebrated and controversial and the local council voted to demolish the work on the day that Whiteread won the Turner Prize. House was demolished after standing for only 80 days, ten days fewer than originally agreed upon.[1]
Suggested by Robin C.
Image source for painting: Photograph by Sue Ormerod of Rachel Whiteread’s House.
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1. Cohen, Alina. “Rachel Whitread’s House was Unlivable, Controversial and Unforgettable.” Artsy.net, September 24, 2018.
CHACALTAYA GLACIER, Bolivia
Melted 2009
The Chacaltaya Glacier melted away in 2009, six years earlier than scientists had anticipated, due to the increased pace of climate change. It was once the world’s highest ski resort. It was part of the Tuni Condioriri mountain glacier system which provides water for the people of El Alto and La Paz and also feeds the local hydroelectric plants.[1]
Suggested by Alexandra S.
Image Source for Painting: Unable to find source of image.
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1. Feldman, Stacy. “Bolivia’s Chacaltaya Glacier Melts to Nothing 6 Years Early,” Inside Climate News, May 6, 2009.
About Ellen Harvey
(United Kingdom, 1967)
She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Ellen Harvey’s work challenges the way we look at traditional iconography through surprising installations and projects that call attention to the personal, social, or physical conditions under which we understand and view images. Harvey’s paintings, installations, multi-media works, and projects experiment with collections, exhibition formats, and new modes of looking. She has completed public artworks for New York Percent for Art, New York Arts in Transit, the Chicago Transit Authority, Boston’s South Station, the San Francisco Airport, the Philadelphia International Airport and the Federal Art in Architecture program. Her work has been the subject of several books including New York Beautification Project (G.R. Miller & Co., 2005), Mirror, (Pennsylvania Academy, 2006), Ellen Harvey: The Unloved (Hannibal, 2014) and Ellen Harvey: Museum of Failure, (G.R. Miller & Co., 2015). She is a 2016 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in the Visual Arts and a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program. She has exhibited extensively in the U.S. and internationally and was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial.
Artist website: ellenharvey.info
Artist Instagram: @ellenharveystudio
To suggest a site to be painted for The Disappointed Tourist, please visit disappointedtourist.org