WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Silence

I have chosen two photos of outdoor sculptures to represent this week’s theme of ‘silence’.  I used a sculpture last week too.  When you’re onto a good thing, might as well stick to it.

The first photo is of Emile Bourdelle’s sculpture of Penelope.

Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, waited ten years for her husband to return from the Trojan War.  This photo is taken at an unusual angle, looking up at her face.  There is a solidity and stillness to the scene.  The posture does not invite solicitude.  It seeks solitude to wait, and perhaps grieve, in silence.  See the original sculpture here.

The second photo is of another sculpture,  Heads from the North, by Indonesian-born sculptor, Dadang Christanto.  There is an an uneasy stillness and quietness to the scene that I find deeply disturbing.  In 1965, Dadang Christanto’s father was abducted by the Indonesian military and was never seen again.  As a child, Christanto had to grieve silently for his father for fear of reprisals.  His father’s fate was shared by an estimated 500,000 people; slaughtered by the Suharto-led military as reprisal for a failed coup.  While protest may be silenced the world over and atrocities hidden from view, this sculpture gives voice to its victims.  It reminds us of man’s inhumanity to man.

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