T'was Rangda Set the Birds Afire I
- Description
- Woodblock print titled T'was Rangda Set the Birds Afire I, created in 2002 by Charles Miley. The print depicts the Balinese Hindu mythological creature named Rangda. With wild eyes and a large, dangling tongue, Rangda is rendered in red, black, and white with the Twin Towers looming behind her. She clutches a white cloth between her claws. A fireball erupts from one of the towers.
- Historical Notes
- Rangda, a fearsome figure in Balinese Hindu mythology, is the personification of evil. Rangda’s power is concentrated in the white cloth covered with runes that she brandishes while working her spells. Artist Charles "Chuck" Miley imagined Rangda's presence on 9/11 in these woodblock prints he created in response to the terrifying event. Rendered entirely in white, red, and black ink, Rangda is clutching the cloth tightly between her long claws. Her hair is unruly, and a long, serpentine tongue protrudes between her fangs.
Curator's Comment
Charles “Chuck” Miley (1943) is an American artist, author, and educator based in Maplewood, NJ. In 2001, he was at Franklin High School in Somerset, NJ, where he had been employed as an art teacher since 1970. While Miley himself was in New Jersey during the September 11th terror attacks, his partner witnessed them unfolding firsthand from lower Manhattan, relaying his experience to Miley in detail. His account included the horror of looking on as people fell or jumped to their deaths from the upper floors of the burning Twin Towers that morning. Miley’s partner was further distressed by a remark from a child he overheard witnessing the same inconceivable sight. The child described the person free-falling from one of the buildings as “a bird on fire flying from the Towers.” Miley assumed that this verbal characterization was how this young child was attempting to process the otherwise hard-to-comprehend reality of witnessing such a violent death. Miley was so moved by the remark that he chose to fold it into the title for a pair of 9/11-related woodblock prints that he created in 2002: T’was Rangda Set the Birds Afire I and II.
- Accession Number: C.2020.38.1
- Dimensions: 33 in X 11 in
- Dimensions (Metric): 83.82 cm X 27.94 cm
- Source: Charles Miley
- Credit Line: Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum
All materials made publicly available by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum on this site are intended for research and educational use only. Users may need to obtain other permissions for their intended use(s) and are responsible for determining copyright status and securing these permissions.
To inquire about copyrights and reproductions, contact: xxx@911memorial.org
