Amanda Lear on 9-11-01

The music that I associate with 9-11 is "I am a photograph" by Amanda Lear. I'm an artist and I make visual art about ethereal experiences, often about the experience of listening to music. In the spring of 2001 I was asked to be in a group show in Belgium called "Not A Lear" I was asked to submit a piece that in some way referenced the Euro-disco celebrity Amanda Lear. That was easy, since she was the cover star of The Second Roxy Music album "For Your Pleasure" and Roxy Music was my favorite band. Then the show traveled to the U.S. for a stop at Gracie Mansion Gallery, my piece , however was broken in transit so I was asked to submit a new piece for the NYC version of the show, opening on September 11 2001. The curator Jimi Dams and I agreed on a painting of a movie marquee with a Roxy Music song title on it which I was to deliver in the late morning of september 11. After the events of that morning I forgot about my commitment to bring the painting by and got a call at 1 pm from the gallery's director Sir Rodney Sir asking where was with the painting.....I was shocked as I didn't think the show would go on and open that night but Sir Rodney insisted it would so I got on my bike, put the painting under my arm and rode up to chelsea. I passed through the smokey west village and saw the office workers leaving on foot, walking away from ground zero and I got to chelsea and delivered the painting. Sir Rodney asked me to stay for the opening, I said I wasn't really in the mood but I might stop back later, Rodney said "Please return, Amanda's coming" . So I went home, cleaned up and headed back up to chelsea. By the time I got there, 7:45, there was no-one there but Sir Rodney, Amanda had come and gone and I was the only other person that showed up. I had a martini then left. Now everytime I think of 9-11 I think of Amanda Lear so I'm working on a piece to commemorate that ethereal experience based on Amanda Lear's "I am a photograph".

Here's Amanda on the cover of Roxy Music's 2nd album, for your pleasure, one of the first albums I ever owned