Dec 1, 2015
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Sapphire and diamond ring, Mouawad.
Centring on a cushion-shaped sapphire weighing 13.72 carats, bordered by brilliant-cut diamonds, size 52, signed Mouawad, French assay and indistinct maker's marks. Sotheby's.
Soaring Heights: A Review of Jad Mouawad’s Fuel Leak Is Latest Setback for Boeing’s Dreamliner (feat. Bettina Wassener)
Mouawad’s newest work, Fuel Leak is Latest Setback for Boeing’s Dreamliner (released January 8 by The New York Times), is simply more of what Mouawad fans have come to expect. That’s not to say that he’s pandering to his free-flying base with the release of the article. Rather, it appears Mouawad has found a niche audience the size of a jumbo jet and wants to be sure that he keeps them seated (with their seatbelts fastened).
The lead sentence in the new article is bouncy and fun, like pogo stick: you’ll have a good time trying it out, but you’re probably not going back for seconds. The author makes up for the lack of luster and melody in the sentence by sprinkling hints of disaster throughout. No spoilers here, though.
The fact that the sentence constitutes the entire introductory paragraph of the piece is quite a departure from Mouawad’s last well known work, In Alaska’s Far North, Two Cultures Collide. Fans will recall the artist cramming three sentences into that opening paragraph. Talk about an overbooked flight.
The theme running throughout Mouawad’s latest article is the Dreamliner, the Boeing 787, and its epidemic of technical problems since its release. Mouawad is clearly critiquing out the shortfalls and the failings of modern machinery. But he is going further with this piece by focusing on the nickname for the 787. For Mouawad and his fans, the tiny failures (a burnt battery, misplaced wiring, etc.) are the various, tiny thorns in lion’s paw. The lion is not only the Dreamliner, but the American dream; not only an airplane, but the faltering promises that air travel offered us just 60 years ago.
The work is a pensive (though at times melodramatic) treatise on post-modern existential angst: primarily focusing on war-born technology in a post-war age (Mouawad points out that the only two airlines currently flying the Dreamliner are United and Japan, juxtaposing WWII tensions against current relations).
Some highlights of the article include a quote from an aerospace analyst, and an anonymous, innocuous quote from a Boeing representative. Of those two tracks, I keep going back the analyst to read words like “showstopper” and “glitch.” The Boeing rep had a certain want for poetry.
Overall I say if you are a regular Mouawad fan, there’s no reason to stop. Definitely check out this new piece. I’m not saying you’re going to be floored (like we all were with the release of his game-changing Safer Flights, but Risk Lurks on the Runway from September, 2012), but you won’t be disappointed.
Recommnded for: Jad Mouawad fans, aviation fanatics, Dadaists, fans of fuel leaks
Don’t read it: aerophobics, dyslexics
The article, from January 8, 2013, is available on The New York Times’ website here.
Suite
Mouwad
Elizabeth Taylor, Christie's