‘SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL CAN RISE FROM SOMETHING TERRIBLE’
More than 800 works in ‘Love Speaks’ Pulse exhibit pay tribute to victims, elicit hope
Many artists whose work is featured in “Love Speaks,” an Orange County Regional History Center exhibit in memory of Pulse, did not know any of the 49 victims.
But they say the tragedy and Orlando’s resolve to rise above it inspired the art.
“When it first happened, I was overwhelmed,” said Michigan print artist John
Gutoskey, who created what he described as visual poems to express the rage and sadness he felt June 12, 2016, when a gunman with a highpowered rifle killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 others during “Latin Night” at the nightclub on Orange Avenue.
A gay man, Gutoskey said he wanted his symbol-filled, multi-media work “Pulse Nightclub: 49 Elegies” to provoke thought about gun violence and homophobia.
“In the end, my hope is someone will be moved to act and make a difference,” he said of his work, which blends photography, wood cut,
colored pencil and collage.
The History Center, recognized for its response to Pulse with the 2019 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the top honor for U.S. museums, has marked the two earlier anniversaries of the tragedy by displaying some of the thousands of memorials. The tributes were collected from the nightclub grounds, the campus of Orlando Regional Medical Center where the wounded were taken for help, and the lawn of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts Center where the community gathered to mourn.
But for this year’s third anniversary, the exhibit focuses on art created in the aftermath, both here and far.
“We wanted this year’s exhibit to be different,” said Pamela Schwartz, the museum’s chief curator. “We wanted it to feel different.”
More than 800 works, many steeped in color, are on display in the exhibition, including 500 featured in a 49-panel video board that pays homage to the victims, who were predominantly gay and Hispanic. The electronic panels cycle through images of tributes created in honor of the victims and displays photographs picked by their families.
Visitors tend to study the flickering panels.
“It’s hard to ignore 49 pairs of eyes looking at you,” Schwartz said.
The panels of victims are arranged not alphabetically but in groups reflecting their relationships to one another. Friends and lovers are side by side.
“They were together having fun and enjoying themselves when they were taken from us. We think it’s important to keep them together,” Schwartz said.
The exhibit runs through Sept. 22. Admission is free this week.
Victims’ families were invited to a private showing.
The works, some on loan, others donated to the One Pulse Collection, express both sorrow and hope.
“You can feel the emotion,” said Jannell Holmes, 21, after seeing the exhibit with boyfriend Rafael Mass and their baby Alethea, 7 months. “The love kind of lifts you up.”
Many pieces are from artists who don’t live in Florida. Many have never been to Orlando.
“We tend to think of the Pulse tragedy as a local thing, and obviously it had a devastating impact here, but this story touched communities across the nation and around the world. You can see that in this exhibit,” said Jeremy Hileman, a registrar who helped put the exhibit together.
“It shows something beautiful can rise from something terrible.”
Some artists said they were surprised but honored their work was included in the exhibit.
“When the Pulse tragedy struck, I had a really hard time getting back to work on Monday morning,” said Ashley Heafy, 34, a self-employed graphic designer in Orlando who had frequented the nightclub with friends when she was younger. “Everything I did, everything I was creating that day after just felt really unimportant.”
She decided to put her work aside and spend the day sketching as catharsis.
What emerged was a heart-shaped design that raised about $7,000 for the OnePulse in sales of “Love More Hate Less” T-shirts and stickers.
Among the variety of Pulse art on display in the exhibit are a handwoven rainbow basket made by Geo Neptune, a Native American artist; a papiermâché festival mask made by Puerto Rican-born folk artist Lilly Carrasquillo; and illustrations from the children’s book “My Tio’s Pulse,” a collaborative effort of artists to help parents and teachers talk with kids about death.
While some art is on exhibit in Central Florida for the first time ever, a few pieces may be familiar.
Ashley and Rhett Withey’s “Love Orlando Orange” design was stamped on pins and stickers, featured in the John Legend music video “Love Me Now,” and converted into a mural on the side of the Se7en Bites Bake Shop in Colonialtown. The couple have shared proceeds with several Orlandobased LGBTQ charities.
“It’s an honor to be able to create something that can do some good,” Ashley Withey said.