BOARDING BY STEPS

(Above) IRANIAN SHAH AND HIS WIFE BOARD FLIGHT IN TO EXILE(1979), photographer unknown.

Boarding a flight by exterior steps recalls the image of departing presidents or dignitaries after a state visit. Mr and Mrs Kennedy ascending to air force 1 and turning back for a last wave to the assembled masses at Berlin Templehoff. The act has many highly iconic precedents yet many in the plebeian masses consider the act inconvenient. Are they so well coiffed that they must not come in to contact with the elements? Or is a deficient imagination to blame? They must try harder! Finding the world an interesting place requires force of effort! Sometimes boarding by steps reminds me of high profile flights in to exile. Images from 1979 of the Shah of Iran and his glamorous wife boarding a Boeing 747 at Tehran International Airport are noteworthy. The arrival of his replacement Ayatollah Khomeini just hours later was equally iconic. The Ayatollah disembarked his Air France Jumbo Jet by stairs. These images are wonderful to replay over and over again in the minds eye. I try to eradicate boring and mundane moments from my own daily life by overlapping real life with recycled images and fantasy. And as I leave the terminal building, the screech of jet engines, the smell of aircraft fuel cannot but easily arouse the senses to experiential elaboration.


(Above) Gary Farrelly, GOLDEN AGE(2008), drawing on paper, private collection Paris.


(Above) AYATOLLAH RETURNS FROM EXILE(1979), photographer unknown.


(Above) Gary Farrelly AIRLINER BOARDING BY STEPS(2009), oil paint on plastic, Galerie W, Paris