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=> Shumirum Re-Re-Reducks

Shumirum Re-Re-Reducks
Posted by farid (Guest) - Monday, November 10 2003, 11:56:53 (EST)
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It's really interesting to me...and probably to Sadie and Alex, the way the Shumirum Monument has passed through the Assyrian community...from the start, 14 years ago, to lying face down under the sky in Monterey, California on what used to be a military air base, hemmed in by a cyclone fence topped with barbed wire.

It took an Assyrian woman, Helen Nimrod, to step in to supply the final funds. On my own I'd managed to raise around $90,000, but it took me 10 years to do it. I lived in Portugal for a year where I made Shumirum's lioness...and had it shipped back through the Panama Canal to Oakland, California where the statue of Shumirum in plaster had been waiting. The two wound up in St. Helena, on some vineyard property Narsai David owns where for the next three years I finished the detailing on the statue of the queen and tried to get the necessary funds.

I'm certain, had I been making another King, money would have been easier to come by...but a queen? That's where Helen stepped in and saved the day because I was just about exhausted. Bless her heart, she gave generously and never asked for a thing in return. She was overjoyed when the city of Chicago gave us such a wonderful site for the monument and looked forward to unveiling it. Then her brother John Nimrod stepped in and stopped the thing cold. First he demanded more time to find an alternate site and wasted three years without suggesting a damn thing. Meanwhile Helen fell and broke her hip and grew weaker. The more I urged him to either find an alternate site for the city to consider or allow us to proceded with the one they'd chosen already...the more he'd say I was rushing things. It got so bad that at the Los Angeles convention Jackie Bejan actually confronted him and asked if he intended the monument to be the tombstone for his sister. That year was the last time I saw Helen. Her condition worsened and by October she was dead...and still nothing from her brother.

In 2000, the year the Arts Council of Chicago decided to move forward with the installation and ignore John...which caused him to threaten to sue them and placed the entire project on indeifinite hold...Jackie approached me about placing the monument in San Jose...my least favorite city in the Universe. But it was either that or nothing so I agreed...put off our move to Mexico for six months while I waited for her highness to quit playing "Look At Me" with the city government of San Jose...until she made the mistake of reaching for what didn't belong to her and soon after banned me from the convention..."Her" convention, wrote her letters "warning people" and let it be known that anyone buying from me or helping in any way would face her wrath. This last bit of hers also killed the Hammurabi as our people are forever sure they're getting screwed by their own and Jackie's letters were filled with just that sort of innuendo.

Before that happened there was $5,000 or so worth of work left to do to prepare the monuent for installation. Jackie and I decided we'd sell a sculpture of mine to pay for it...but before that could happen I asked the owner of the foundry to do the work with a promise to pay later...or the sculpture would be his to place in the sculpture garden run by the city of Marina near Monterey. I was concerned that we wouldn't have time to finish if we set a date for installing the Shumirum and then waited till the last minute for Jackie to get her "horses all lined up" before doing the work on the monument so I thought it was better to get the work out of the way early. Surely Jackie wouldn't use a personal rebuff against the Shumirum...would she? I hadn't counted on Jackie's taking that moment to suggest she take me to Detroit with her...ahem. When I declined, she refused to come up with the names of the friends who she said wanted to buy the sculpture in order to pay the foundry bill. The date by which payment was due or else I'd forfeit the monument was rapidly approaching...what to do? The iroy is I should have just let it be installed in Marina...which is where it could go today...and be done with it...except that now Narsai blocks its installation. I don't think anyone wants to see this monument go up...why? Just what purpose is it supposed to serve...really?

Narsai returned from China a week before the deadline and when I told him my predicament he offered to pay the bill...but not unless I wrote him a letter and got one from the foundry owner stating that Narsai David now owned the Shuirum Monument. I figured he and I were in agreement as to where the monument should go...in Chicago by the Oriental Institute and if we had to wait on Nimrod to die...okay.. Then just this year Narsai talked me into agreeing to send the monument there to an alternate site...a park on the north side Nimrod had suggested to him. I told Narsai I would do it only if there was a firm date for installng the monument and funds for a pedestal etc. Nimrod agreed to everything in writing to Narsai...except for what I'd asked for...a definite installation date. Without that, I told Narsai from the beginning of his correspondence with Nimrod, I wouldn't send the sculpture to Chicago. I don't trust John and for good reason. I could see the Shumirum being stored away for years to come and sure enough Nimrod told Narsai that a good "alternative" alternative site would be at the new location of the AUA clubhouse they were going to build...All things considered I felt Narsai simply wanted the statue installed anywhere in Chicago, or just sent there as John agreed to write a letter to him allowing him to get the tax advantage... so he could get the credit...and the tax savings...around $90,000.

Without the guarantees I'd asked for I refused to go along with the two of them. The ower of the foundry is aghast at my desire to melt down the statues and even though he understands, sort of, where Nimrod is coming from...and now has to contend with Narsai and his claims of ownership...he's still willing to chance a lawsuit and a horde of Cannibals descending on his head for daring to install this doomed monument...except he asked for a letter from Narsai releasing him from any liability if he installs the monument.

And that's where we stand today....again waiting for a letter that most likely won't come. On top of that the appraiser, who'd always been cooperative before, got cold feet when all the details were laid out...the threatened lawsuits...the conflicting claims of ownership etc and said this entire project would be a red flag for the IRS and would drag her into it as well, so no appraisal. there went Narsai's tax savings...and in retaliation I doubt he'll write the letter to the foundry owner. It's deja vu all over again.

Odd thing. I know what I can do and where I don't belong. Narsai demands respect for his ragout and roasted lamb...he treats his recipes for sauces as if they were recovered Shakespearean sonnets...Jackie demands respect for the product her company turns out and Golani would be aghast if I tampered with his rear ends...at Ford Motor Company, where he designs them. But me? Why, where do I come off expecting some respect for the integrity of my work? After all it's just sculpture...just art...what's the big deal? It's not like we were talking about something sacred, like stuffed goose...or a new way to flush silicon...or gears. I'd never dream of telling them how to conduct their affairs...their business I mean. But each of them thought I was being "stubborn" and then petulant because I had a vision of how my work should be done and then presented.

You don't really respect yourself when you can't respect the work of others.



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