Jessica Helfand|The Icarus Diaries
May 26, 2026
19: Triumph’s End
Read the introduction to this series.
24 x 24 inches
Oil on canvas
2025
I am, I now realize, nearing the end of this exploration. Narratives unpacked, etymologies revealed, a story deconstructed, unpacked, reimagined.
So many ups and downs in the studio. So many ups and downs in this story.
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew, Jack Gilbert writes in Failing and Flying.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell
but just coming to the end of his triumph.
I am thinking about the flight from the labyrinth. Daedalus planned his and his son’s escape in secret and with care. The passage was perilous. Their departure was meant to be swift and uncomplicated. Flying, even then, a miracle of acceleration.
Otto Lilienthal wrote:
“To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything.”
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By Jessica Helfand
Jessica Helfand is an artist and writer based in New England. A former critic at Yale School of Art and one of the founding editors of Design Observer, she is the author of several books on visual culture including Self Reliance, Design: The Invention of Desire, and Face: A Visual Odyssey. jessicahelfand.com
