2009 Programs And Events
Embassy Receives Sculpture Commemorating Hurricane Katrina (07/08/2009)
Well known Uzbek sculptor Rashit Suleymanov presented the U.S. Embassy with a sculpture he made in memory of the people who died when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005.
The approximately 25 cm bronze cast depicts a globe encircled by a whirling storm. A line of spirits with the wings of angels rises up from the globe. The abstract piece sits on a base inscribed with the word “Katrina.”
More than 1,800 people died in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states in what has been called the largest and costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Hurricane Katrina devastated coastal regions and led to the failure of the levee system built to protect the low-lying city of New Orleans. As a result, 80 percent of the city flooded in the aftermath of the storm.
Suleymanov said he was deeply touched by images of people desperately appealing for help when they were left stranded in the flooded city. Those feelings and a desire to help the victims became the impulse for the artistic creation when he later made the sculpture, he said.
Suleymanov presented the sculpture to U.S. Ambassador Richard Norland during a visit to the artist’s studio July 8. Suleymanov explained the ideas and motivations behind many of the dozens of sculptures in the studio.
The sculpture “Katrina” will be on display in the central area of the Embassy, which houses other works of art by American and Uzbek artists.