12 DAYS 12 NIGHTS / JERUSALEM

9th day

DAY 9: 8 SEPTEMBER 1994

THE SHOOTING OF THE STYMPHALIAN BIRDS
THE SCREAM

Gloves, linen, straw, sand, mixed media on canvas
80 x 40" (200 x 100 cm)

MYTHOLOGICAL INFORMATION

The raucous noise of the birds was driving the Stymphalians crazy. Hercules shot all his arrows at the birds, but they had feathers of iron. He then thought to beat them at their own game. He put wax into his ears and created a noise still more horrible than that of the birds. They fled.

DAILY DIARY

A visitor told Bernd Fasching about her time as a child, captive in a German concentration camp. After being liberated, she suffered from severe attacks of insomnia - almost becoming mad. In the course of therapy she tried drawing and painting images of her horrible experiences. After all these years she is finally able to sleep again. With her insomnia away, the urge to paint the horrors she had experienced disappeared. Instead, she copied masterpieces of art. One day, she started copying "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. Suddenly, her attacks of insomnia reappeared. Thus, she had to begin again, but on a different level, to work on her problems.

For the first time in decades she was able to speak in her mother tongue again. She originally came from Vienna, Austria.

Having heard this story, Bernd Fasching painted a scream - not a screaming person, but rather a scream itself.