US Letter, 2012 (4) by Bobby Davidson
SHIPPED FROM: New York
PRICE: $1,300.00 (EXCL. SHIPPING)
ALL FUNDS GO TO BEIRUT NGOS
About the artwork
Archival pigment prints, mounted to aluminum, wooden cradle for wall hanging. In this series, US Letter, I relied on images and documentation from television, the internet, and print news to create my own photo-realistic pictures based on an "imagined" 9/11 - one where ubiquitous objects become fragments of the past, the living, and the once occupied. This digitally fabricated series was inspired by Don DeLillo's novel Falling Man. My images are based specifically on a moment where DeLillo describes a scene of disarray and chaos on the day The World Trade towers disappeared from the New York City skyline on September 11, 2001. This description was so vivid that it provoked me to reevaluate my own memories of the 9/11 attacks in present day... My recollection of the catastrophe was one of objectivity. I recalled papers and debris falling from the sky. Seeing footage of these papers over and over again was unnerving for me because it represented the physical evidence of people. And somehow I felt a connection to this evidence, to their sheets of 8.5" x 11" paper.
Edition 1 of 3, 2 Artist Proofs.
L: 38 cm, W: 50.8 // L: 15 in, W: 20 in
How does it help Beirut?
Every sale contributes to raising money for Lebanon. Funds will be disbursed with full transparency to well-vetted NGOs according to the most pressing needs through the Beirut Emergency Fund 2020.
Shipping
Shipments can take up to 6–8 weeks to be processed. International shipments might be subjected to customs taxes.
Please bear in mind that we’re a charitable, grassroots initiative; processing and shipping takes longer than it does for commercial online retail. Work is packed and shipped from our contributor’s studios, who (like our customers) are based all over the world.
We’ll keep you informed via email, please contact us if you have further questions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Why USD?
Transactions will be in US Dollars, because it’s a universally accepted currency in Lebanon and will be counted as ‘Fresh Money’, i.e. non-Lebanese dollars or “Lollars”, which are stuck in the banking system.
[For context: The Lebanese lira had been pegged against the US dollar at a fixed level (1,500 to the dollar) since 1997, the dollar and lira being used interchangeably. Personal savings accounts are kept in US dollars, and large-scale imports of wheat, medicine and fuel, are done in US dollars, too. Now, Lebanon is experiencing a financial crisis of such magnitude that the lira has lost nearly 90% of its value compared to the dollar, and the price of everything has skyrocketed.
Large deposits from wealthy investors in the central bank had been the primary source of dollars, needed to maintain the link to the Lebanese pound. As Lebanon doesn't produce a lot for export, the economy relied on continuing investments, with the central bank offering ever-higher interest rates for large deposits, whose yields could only be covered by newer deposits at even higher rates. This strategy has been likened to a state-sponsored Ponzi scheme, and collapsed once new depositors stopped investing. It didn’t take long for the real dollars in the bank to be far short of the theoretical dollars that had been earned in interest on previous deposits.
Earlier this year, banks put strict limits on cash withdrawals for individual account holders, either limiting dollar amounts, or ceasing to hand them out at all. Withdrawals from savings accounts have been strictly limited, and only allowed at the current lira to dollar rate, meaning that peoples savings are basically evaporating.
Now, the dollar bills that belong to individual citizens are being held by the banks, and referred to as “Lollars”, or Lebanese Dollars, practically mythical objects.]