Sculpture
Dear Jeff...
- Description
- Sculpture created by Virginia Fitzgerald in memory of Amy Elizabeth Toyen and titled Dear Jeff . . . . The sculpture is modeled after Toyen's expected wedding dress and was created using tea-dyed paper and wallpaper paste on a wooden molding. The sculpture sits on a re-purposed white table top serving as a base.
The top of the dress, which is sleeveless with a square neckline and low-scooped back, is comprised of bits and pieces of Toyen’s cards and notes to her fiancé Jeff Gonski during the course of their relationship, most of which start with "Dear Jeff." Near the stomach/lower ribs area are fragments of the announcements and news articles regarding the couple’s engagement and upcoming 2002 wedding. At the hips, are articles pertaining to Toyen’s death on 9/11, including Missing posters created by her family. The skirt portion of the dress is made of condolence cards, offers of aid, support, prayers, and even monetary contributions. Other post-9/11 correspondence also forms the vines, leaves, and pods that extend from the bottom of the skirt and up toward the dress itself. - Historical Notes
- Hartford, Connecticut, native Amy Toyen lived in Newton, Massachusetts. She and her fiancé, Jeffrey, planned to marry in June 2002. Amy liked writing, drawing, and going to the theater. A marketing employee at Thomson Financial in Boston, on September 11, Amy was presenting at a technology conference on the North Tower’s 106th floor. She was 24 years old.
Curator's Comment
Amy Toyen (age 24) was engaged to be married in June 2002 to her college sweetheart, Jeff Gonski (age 26). The couple was busy planning their wedding in 2001 when Toyen’s life was cut short by her untimely death on 9/11. She had just ordered her wedding dress.
Around the time of the 10th anniversary of the attack, Gonski embarked on an artistic endeavor in honor of Toyen in what he referred to informally at the time as “The Dress Project.” Using a photograph of Toyen's wedding dress for inspiration, Gonski commissioned Virginia Fitzgerald, a Natick, Massachusetts-based artist, to design a replica of Toyen’s dress made from the newspaper clips, cards from well-wishers after 9/11, Toyen’s own letters and cards to Gonski, and other ephemera, such as announcements of Gonski and Toyen’s engagement and would-be nuptials and Missing posters. “It’s not just about Amy and myself,” Gonski told reporters, “but the support that came out of the community after it.”
Fitzgerald titled the finished sculpture Dear Jeff . . . . Created on a smaller-than-life-size scale, the delicate wedding dress is composed of largely handwritten notes and ephemera designed to tell a story of a courtship violently interrupted. According to Fitzgerald, “It was this outpouring of love and sympathy that Jeff really wanted to highlight with the sculpture. When we met and spoke about the commission it was clear that this wasn’t to be a memorial to Amy, but a testimony to the power of community and how Jeff would not have made it through this horrible life event without the love and support from friends, family and the community. He spoke about how not only did he survive but he wanted to celebrate the idea that even after such a hard loss, life goes on. To represent Jeff’s thoughts and emotions about survival and recovery I created branches with leave[s] and seedpods coming off the bottom of the sculpture and growing back into the piece. I wanted to capture the feeling of the phoenix, rebirth from the ashes.”
Around the time of the 10th anniversary of the attack, Gonski embarked on an artistic endeavor in honor of Toyen in what he referred to informally at the time as “The Dress Project.” Using a photograph of Toyen's wedding dress for inspiration, Gonski commissioned Virginia Fitzgerald, a Natick, Massachusetts-based artist, to design a replica of Toyen’s dress made from the newspaper clips, cards from well-wishers after 9/11, Toyen’s own letters and cards to Gonski, and other ephemera, such as announcements of Gonski and Toyen’s engagement and would-be nuptials and Missing posters. “It’s not just about Amy and myself,” Gonski told reporters, “but the support that came out of the community after it.”
Fitzgerald titled the finished sculpture Dear Jeff . . . . Created on a smaller-than-life-size scale, the delicate wedding dress is composed of largely handwritten notes and ephemera designed to tell a story of a courtship violently interrupted. According to Fitzgerald, “It was this outpouring of love and sympathy that Jeff really wanted to highlight with the sculpture. When we met and spoke about the commission it was clear that this wasn’t to be a memorial to Amy, but a testimony to the power of community and how Jeff would not have made it through this horrible life event without the love and support from friends, family and the community. He spoke about how not only did he survive but he wanted to celebrate the idea that even after such a hard loss, life goes on. To represent Jeff’s thoughts and emotions about survival and recovery I created branches with leave[s] and seedpods coming off the bottom of the sculpture and growing back into the piece. I wanted to capture the feeling of the phoenix, rebirth from the ashes.”
- Accession Number: C.2018.43.1
- Dimensions: 54 in X 35 in X 30 in
- Dimensions (Metric): 137.16 cm X 88.9 cm X 76.2 cm
- Source: Virginia Fitzgerald
- Credit Line: Gift of Virginia Fitzgerald. Commissioned by Jeffrey Gonski
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