Seha Nur Sarı
The Sound of Wings of Freedom at the White House
Oil on canvas, 100 × 150 cm, 2021
Abraham Lincoln’s familiar face is replaced by a bald eagle. Embedded in the collective memory of the United States, this image merges with the identity of the historical figure, creating a new figure at the intersection of the individual and the collective.
Lincoln’s historical legacy, associated with the abolition of slavery, encounters the idea of freedom carried by the eagle within American culture. Yet in this encounter, neither the historical figure nor the symbol remains unchanged. They transform one another’s meaning. What appears in the portrait is no longer Lincoln’s face, but another face in which historical memory, national narratives and shared imagery have become intertwined around him.
Some images outlive the time and context in which they first emerged. They are repeated, transmitted and charged with new meanings across generations. Like images that persist within the collective unconscious, each time they resurface, they return both familiar and transformed. Here, as the individual face disappears, it is replaced by a larger memory that belongs to no single person.
