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Nationwide Artistic Responses to the September 11 Tragedy and its Aftermath
**All material in this section is archived. It was material collected in the immediate aftermath of 9/11/2001 and reflects the period of that time. For responses to political art in 2003 and later, follow the link to Artists Respond to the Political Present.**
Events | Visual Art | Performance, Music, Dance | Film, Video, TV | Words | Audio | Comics
Visual Art: Photography, Photo Books, Photo Essays
DUST TO DNA: Kevin Clarke and Mikey Flowers 9/11 The images that Emergency Medical Technician Flowers took became the basis for a collaboration with the artist Kevin Clarke, whose studio was also near the WTC. Dust to DNA: Kevin Clarke and Mikey Flowers 9/11, the result of their endeavor, is on view at the International Center of Photography from June 28 through September 1, 2002. It is the third exhibition in the series "Imaging the Future: The Intersection of Science, Technology, and Photography," and is curated by Carol Squiers. For this collaboration, Clarke used Flowers' images of 9/11 and its aftermath for portraits of people who survived the attacks or who were involved in the rescue effort. A view of smoke billowing from the ruins behind a group of firefighters is overlaid with the DNA sequences of the survivors.
Ground Zero at Detroit Museum of New Art: organized by artists Frank Shifreen, Daniel Scheffer, and Julius Vitali, Ground Zero, an exhibition of post 9/11 art, features the work of over 50 artists. Artists from all over the country have created works in many styles, in varied media and with many reactions to the world since last September and to the drama of cultural clash.
Memorial in Boston: Russ Peres, Marine Corps veteran from Gloucester has build a Sept. 11 memorial designed to rebuild the faith of his countrymen. Peres, helped by other homeless veterans, set up a wall of Sept. 11-related photographs on City Hall Plaza. He shot most of the photographs during several visits to New York City, the first one just a week after the tragedy. But the theme of the wall is strangely optimistic: Though there are a few pictures documenting the destruction at Ground Zero, many more show the posters and flowers and flags from around the country that sprouted all over New York in the days that followed.
A Place in the Sky Before she focused on erotic images, photographer Flo Fox spent some time documenting the construction of the World Trade Center. Beginning Monday 9, an exhibit of her now-poignant images will hang for a month at Henry Street Settlement. Nine of the photographs of the then-startling building process are exhibited along with "Messages of Hope"—sun prints made by children at the center's summer camp. Henry Street Settlement, Abrons Art Center, 466 Grand St at Pitt St (212-598-0400).
New York September 11 by Magnum photographers: beginning on September 6, 2002, The Chicago Historical Society will present the exhibition, "New York September 11" by Magnum photographers. In concurrent programs, local journalists and Magnum Photographers will share their thoughts about the power of images how images shape impressions of the past and how photojournalism affects the understanding of history. On September 11, 2002, The Chicago Historical Society will also host "A Day of Remembrance" with music, an Ofrenda sponsored by the Resurrection Catholic Academy, and a "Wall of Remembrance" which will ask visitors to contribute their reflections on the anniversary of the tragedy.
Imagine New York: "Imagine New York: An Exhibition of Ideas", on view from Wednesday, July 17 through October 10 at the Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue at East 51st Street in New York City. The exhibit includes a collection of ideas and images regarding the future of the World Trade Center site, Lower Manhattan and the region, chosen from among more than 18,000 ideas gathered through Imagine New York. Free and open to the public.
Renewing, Rebuilding, Remembering: New York is unique. Yet like other cities that have been struck by disaster, it will come back. Van Alen Institute has curated "Renewing, Rebuilding, Remembering" to demonstrate how cities, after incomparable loss of people and places, find ways to plan, design, and reconstruct the life of the city. The Institute put out a call for ideas for the exhibit. Students, designers, planners, artists, professors, photographers, public officials & a wide range of respondents from around the world were generous in suggesting places, projects, issues, & designs that were telling for the future of New York. From this response and ongoing research, the Institute chose to focus on specific processes and projects in seven cities: Beirut, San Francisco, Kobe, Manchester, Berlin, Sarajevo & Oklahoma City.
Touhami Ennadre's black and white photographs entitled "September 11" (2001-2002) were shown at Documenta XI.
Gary Suson, a Manhattan photographer and actor, spent eight months documenting the exhausting and painstaking recovery effort at the World Trade Center site. He photographed workers wrestling with masses of gnarled wire and metal inside the crater that was known as the pit. He recorded scenes of awkward tenderness. He wandered the dark and silen PATH train tunnel and subway concourses farther below ground.
9.11.01: An online documentary project, sponsored by the Flux Factory, incorporating photographic portraits and words of people's feelings about the events in New York on 9.11.01.
Brotherhood: Sixty-nine photographers during a two week period following Sept. 11 documented the firehouses that lost members in the tragedy, the lives of those who work within those firehouses, and the outpourings of grief and support from the communities within which they are situated. The photographs are collected in a book dedicated to the fallen 343, and are also on view at The Museum of the City of New York through June 2, 2002.
"Missing": City Lore photographer Martha Cooper began photographing the spontaneous memorials that went up around New York city immediately following the World Trade Center attacks. You can view them on City Lore's web site or at an exhibition at the New York Historical Society — "Missing:Streetscape of A City in Mourning" — March 12 through July 7, 2002. Also at the exhibition are film footage and audio interviews from Union Square, poetry and artworks created in the days and weeks following the disaster, and a computer station linked to 911digitalarchive.org, where visitors can view and contribute to one of the major Sept. 11 archives.
One Nation: America Remembers September 11: The editors of Life Magazine have compiled a book of photographs taken by some of the world's greatest photographers, and original essays by Maya Angelou, David McCullough and others. One Nation is not just an account of the tragedies, but a celebration of strenght, unity, and heroism.
September 11: A Testimony by the staff of Reuters. The guiding principle in assembling these images was one of documenting scenes of endurance, resolve, and determination. Finding the pictures that capture courage and fortitude in the heat and the dust.
New York September 11: The legendary photographers of the Magnum agency documented the events in New York City on September 11 and in the days afterward, capturing moving photo essays about the immediate impact of the planes; the collapse of the towers; and the grief that enveloped the city.
Faces of Ground Zero: Photojournalist Joe McNally's life-size photos of the World Trade Center tragedy (taken with the world's largest polaroid) were on view at Grand Central Terminal in NYC from 01/09/02 – 01/20/02.
World Trade Center, A Photographic Diary: Digital photos shot by painter-photographer Steven Lampasona are currently showing at the Nassau County Museum of Art. The photographs capture the immediate moments after the first attack as seen from Lampasona's West Broadway studio, through the first week of rescue efforts at Ground Zero.
Lower Manhattan, 9-12-01: Greg Fuchs's photo essay originally apperared on the Philadelphia Independent Media Center, and later in Clamor magazine. These ten photographs were taken on the day after September 11 from Chambers Street in lower Manhattan.
September 11 Photo Project: Original photographs or digital prints by members of the community in response to the events of September 11 are shown Tuesday through Sunday at 26 Wooster Street in Soho, New York. New York City.
Here Is New York: In response to the World Trade Center tragedy, and to the unprecedented flood of images that have resulted from it, an exhibition and sale of photographs is running in Soho on the ground floor of 116 Prince Street, NYC 10012. Here is New York opened it's first major traveling exhibition in Chicago, Illinois on February 1, 2002. The exhibition will be open seven days a week, including holidays, from 10AM to 6 PM, February 1 – March 30, 2002 at 72 E. Randolph Street, across from the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago.
Tenri Cultural Institute of New York presents Y. Nagasaki's hundreds of photographs documenting the historical moments of the September 11 tragedy and people's reaction to this horrific occurrence, as well as showing the World Trade Center before it was attacked.
September 11, 2001: A Collection of Newspaper Front Pages selected by the Poynter Institute. September 11 told through 150 newspaper front pages dated September 12, 2001.
49 of 2870 – A Memory of September 11: Immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center, images from family albums were postered around New York. Quickly, these private offerings of grief became an altar for communal mourning. Artist Kevin Ryan began preserving the images of the victims' faces, now a collective portrait of the depth and diversity of the city's loss.
309: a fraction: When artist Audrey Francis was asked to contribute a piece to the Barrett Art Center's exhibit, "9/11 Remembrance and Hope – A Process of Healing," she "just looked at faces. Face after face, knowing the heartbreaking fact that whoever posted that photograph on the internet loved that person who was missing." Each face belongs to someone who is missing in the September 11 attacks. 309 was "just about as much as I could take," writes the artist. Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY.
Sculpture & Installations:
Opening on September 4 and running through October 10 at the Urban Center Galleries of the Municipal Art Society, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council presents MICROVIEWS Artists' Documents of The World Trade Center, a hands-on exhibition which presents the building's architecture and environs as documented by the artists during their residencies. "Viewers are invited to sift through this archive of daily life at the World Trade Center, including photographs, drawings and video of public areas, office suites, hallways, studios, and infrastructure. Microviews explores the processes of reconstruction and memory through everyday documents," the exhibition states.
Ground Zero: A 300-piece exhibit of paintings, photographs, digitally altered images & sculptures about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is on view at the Museum of New Art in Detroit. Organized by NY artists Danny Scheffer, Frank Shifreen and Julius Vitali, "Ground Zero," features works by 60 artists. The exhibit is intended to reflect the range of attitudes about Sept. 11, from patriotism & ruminations on the imagery of that day to anti-American perspectives and appeals for peace. The curators say they want to broaden the public discussion about terrorism, nton nal security, news coverage, patriotism & freedom of expression in times of war. 13 Jul – 24 Aug, 2002.
Exit Art, a cultural space near the World Trade Center, is organizing a project called REACTIONS that aims to be an international response to September 11 from both inside and outside the art world. REACTIONS opened with over 1,000 works on Saturday, January 26, 2002 at Exit Art, 548 Broadway, 2nd floor, NYC.
EmergeNcy, an impromptu arts collective, presented an exhibition and benefit sale on December 8 and 9, 2001, of art work made in response to the events of September 11. Crane Street Studios, Long Island City, NY.
After Before: Artistic Encounters Following September 11: A group exhibition featuring "Portrait Conversations" with Ghassan Abulaban. This collaboration includes artists, educators, therapists, community workers, and professors and students from Boston College, Boston University and Lesley University. Attleboro Museum, Center for the Arts. May 5 – June 1, 2002.
Reaction: A multimedia art exhibition/performance festival to benefit NYC art & artists. "Reaction" will explore the ripple effects of September 11 on the work of a wide range of NY artists. Each artist will show samples of pre-9/11; the bulk of the work on exhibit will be pieces created after 9/11. 50% of sales go directly to the artists, the other 50% to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. May 3-May 10, 2002, at DNA Studio Gallery, 2174 3rd Ave, btwn 118th & 199th Sts.
World Views program: What was once an indoor mall at the World Financial Center will become artist studios under a program designed to draw tenants & visitors back to the battered complex. Nine artists will exhibit works ranging from a computer-rendered history of downtown development to handcrafted artificial trees. Before Sept. 11, the program administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council had artists working on a donated vacant floor of the WTC. The artists are all expected to respond in some way to their immediate surroundings & the devastation of the WTC attack. Artists' Residency Open House: July 21, 2002, 12-5pm. Brown Bag Open Studios: July 22 & 29, 2002, 11am-2pm Exhibition: Oct 30, 2002 ? Jan 17, 2003 (All events held at the WFC Courtyard Gallery, Vesey Street, NYC).
Exit Art has announced that the exhibition, REACTIONS, will become part of the permanent collection of The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The donation will be known as the Exit Art Reactions Collection. Selections from Reactions will be shown in The Library of Congress' upcoming Great Hall exhibition, Witness and Response: September 11th Acquisitions at The Library of Congress. The exhibition, which includes a selection of material collected from across the country since last September, will be on view September 7th – October 26th in Washington, D.C. The Library, as an official repository of American history, felt a responsibility to preserve and share this important material.
Bomb: an installation by two Colorado University graduate students was created in the hours immediately after the September 11 tragedy. Lori Ann Warren and Suzanne Feris worked furiously for several days and nights wrapping threads around a bomb-like piece of metal.
After the 11th: New York artist Norm Magnusson has created a booklet entitled "After the 11th" that explores the various emotional and intellectual states (Xenophobia, Loss of Innocence, Patriotism, etc.) that he has experienced since September 11. He is in the process of planning an exhibition based on the work in the booklet. Some of the images can be viewed here. (April 2002)
Looking Forward: Every evening from April 5 – May 5th, 2002, 8 windows and 4 14-foot high clock faces on the 16th floor in the waterfront tower of 1 Main Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn, were transformed by Michael Counts into video projection screens from which the faces of hundreds of New Yorkers-children, mothers, fire fighters, relief workers, residents & NY personalities- gazed out, surveying the landscape & watching over the city at this unique time of rebirth & renewal. WFMU broadcast the voices of New Yorkers whose images appeared in the clock tower, set to an original score by long time collaborator Joseph Diebes, which was synchronized with the clock tower images.
INFLIGHT LOUNGE: "How Do We Know the Sky Isn't Green and We're Just Colorblind?" Belgian video artist Grimonprez created an environment reminiscent of an airport lounge, complete with television monitors, coffee tables, extra-wide seating, and his version of INFLIGHT magazine. Including more than fifty videos of disaster movies, documentaries, and art films, the video library also featured dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 1997 —Grimonprez's sensational and critically acclaimed study of sky-jacking. April 20?June 9, 2002 at Santa Monica Museum of Art.
Installation by Aileen Bassis: The Aftermath (9/11): NJ artist/photographer Aileen Bassis has created an installation that reflects her emotions and those of people in the metropolitan NYC community. The walls of the gallery are covered with photocopy transfer prints of faces of friends & neighbors. Faces are repeated and fragmented, in different sizes and in mirror images. The words: HURT, ANGRY, GUILTY, SCARED, LOST are formed by knotted and glued black thread, and are also penciled on the images. June 28-July 20, 2002 at Ceres Project Room, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, 323 W. 39 St. NYC. Contact Aileen Bassis at [email protected].
Missing by Barbara Siegel: through October 19, 2002, in New York City, Lehman College Art Gallery is presenting Missing: an installation by Barbara Siegel, based on the posters of missing people and honoring the lost lives.
"MoreAliveThanOthers": Israeli-American sculptor Nitza Danieli Horner was provoked to do this work by the assassination of Daniel Pearl and inspired by his wife's writing: "They did not take his spirit."
David Cohen, the owner of Chelsea Jeans, a clothing store on Broadway near Fulton Street, a block from where the World Trade Center sealed more than $1,000 worth of Ralph Lauren sweaters and shirts and Levi jeans, covered with the pulverized remains of the twin towers, behind glass, creating a 50-square-foot, ready-made diorama of ground zero. According to Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times art critic, "His efforts resulted is the city's most artful shrine to Sept. 11." Meanwhile Mr. Cohen's store is to disappear by mid-September. He has taped a note to the window, below the "For Rent" sign and above the "Everything Must Go" notice. It says: "After the events of Sep. 11th 2001, which totally destroyed our store, we invested a lot of time and money in order to open our doors once again. We hoped that things would get better . . . but they didn't . . . and soon we will have to close our doors permanently. We are very sorry, we gave it our best shot, but now we will have to say goodbye. About our memorial for Sep. 11th? We don't know what to do with it but if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear from you."
9/11 Tribute Being Built in Sherwood Island State Park, Connecticut: the idea is to create a place where people can go to seek comfort. New Haven architects Towers/Golde designed the memorial to face the Manhattan skyline. Walkways and granite should be installed by the end of September, and planting of trees, shrubs and beach grasses completed by spring. Tax-deductible contributions may be sent payable to "CPFA – CT's 9/-11 Living Memorial Fund" c/o The Connecticut Forest & Park Assn., 16 Meriden Road, Rt. 66, Rockfall, CT 06481
Bellevue's Sept. 11 statue reflects twin towers: marking the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks Mercer Island artist Ingrid Lahti, designed the sculpture which is going to be displayed in Downtown Park, Bellevue, Seattle. Each tag, bearing the name of one of the more than 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11, will be hung on the metal framework of two towers 11 feet or 12 feet. The tags will create the shimmering walls of the towers that will be erected in a pond at the park to capture their reflections in the water. In the coming weeks, at churches, Bellevue Square and Crossroads malls and elsewhere, people will have a chance to write one of the victims' names on a tag.
Moving Perimeter, a proposal by Mary Miss would transform the perimeter of Ground Zero into a continuous band of sky-blue fencing, seating and trees and flowers. However, although it received some endorsements, the proposal is currently in limbo. Curved blue fence sections would replace chain link fences and plywood walls. Flexible partitions with openings at the top into which visitors would be invited to put flowers would replace police crowd control barriers. In place of concrete barriers, bands of planters with flowering trees would surround the site. Circular seating would create stopping places, and a subtle audio presence evoking the victims of Sept. 11 would emanate from speakers. Cobalt blue lights at the top of the fences would surround the site making it visible from the air as well as ground level.
"Freedom's Flame," a Sept. 11 memorial incorporating 16 tons of wreckage from the terrorist attacks, including remnants of the World Trade Center and a demolished New York fire truck, will be erected in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
911intransit: Artist Edward Hillel's 3-part traveling exhibition includes a 9/11 Memorial, The Wall of the Missing, and The Community Shrine Wall. Will open on September 11, 2002 at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Ray Zink's 6-foot-high and 300-pound metal sculpture was recently placed in the front hall of Whetstone High School in Columbus, OH, in homage to the victims of September 11. Twin towers rise above a tiered, tilted Pentagon positioned behind two upturned palms.
Visual artist Pietro Costa has created grace, 2002, a vertical series of concentric red neon rings radiating intense light for the Magic of Light exhibition currently showing at the Hudson River Museum (thru May 19, 2002). On a circular platform below the light sculpture, which is suspended from the ceiling, are randomly scattered over 3000 slips of paper documenting the names of those who were killed on Sept. 11. Visitors are invited to take a slip of paper in remembrance of those that died.
Lawrenceville, PA metal artist Jan Loney, created a sculpture with students from Shanksville-Stonycreek School. 22 large pieces that resemble leaves or flames of fire hang on a 7 1/2-foot steel structure that looks like a tree. Each leaf bears the impressions of the hands of Shanksville students, teachers, administrators & cafeteria workers, who offered help after UA Flight 93 went down 1 1/2 miles outside their town. The sculpture, which is a memorial to the people who died aboard UA Flight 93, will be unveiled May 17, 2002, and will stand outside the school's main entrance.
Shadows of Truth: 16 fiberglass and gauze life-size figures are Texas artist Dixie Friend Gay's reactions to the emotions that are flooding our lives. The installation was shown at the Grace Museum from October to December 2001 and will travel to Santa Fe this summer.
Tribute in Light: Beginning March 11, 2001 (the 6-month anniversary of the September 11 attacks), two beams of light will rise from Battery Park City in NYC and shine each night for one month from dusk to 11 pm. While filling the void in the Lower Manhattan skyline, "Tribute in Light" will temporarily commemorate those we have lost and serve as a symbol of America's spirit and courage as well as of New York City's resilience.
Prayers for the New Ancestors: An Altar for the Warrior Spirits by Leslie King-Hammond. The artist created this for an exhibition at the Maryland Institute College of Art as a means of healing and meditation. "Altars provide a source of energy to renew and give rebirth to the damage and assault to our creative and human spirit," King-Hammond says. (taken from Ms. Magazine)
911 Group Installation: On Nov. 2, 2001, this site-specific work was exhibited in front of Hayden Library at Arizona State University. Polished granite stones and steles were designed with sandblasted, handpainted words and images expressing thoughts & feelings relating to the tragedy. Small cards with phrases & poetry were handed to passers-by during a continuous reading of the names of the missing. The exhibition/work is scheduled to be re-presented at upcoming events at ASU. More images can be found here.
New York, September 11, 2001–Four Days Later: Architect and artist Laura Kurgan created this installation using high resolution Ikonos satellite imagery of New York on September 15, 2001.
"All I Can Do": Artist Martha Johnson, a native New Yorker, chose to include an interactive sculpture in the Art For Design Artists Group exhibit during the Spokane Visual Arts Tour (Oct 5-6, 2001). Each visitor was asked to place a 4×8" concrete brick on one of two stacks standing side by side, as a representation of the WTC Towers.
Drawn Together invites people in cities around the country to create a chalk drawing on a sidewalk of the World Trade Center towers, two 767 airplanes and human beings, all drawn to scale. A mock-up of the drawing is provided on their web site. The intention is to help us grasp the enormous scale of the buildings and what has happened; to understand this as a crime which has affected everyone—not just people in New York or workers in the Pentagon; and to demonstrate one way in which ordinary people, using ordinary materials, can communicate and join together in a positive action.
SPACES: In a piece on exhibit at SPACES Gallery in Cleveland, artist J. Morrison memorializes those who died in the September 11th tragedies. The artist, who moved to New York from Ohio in September, distributed more than 2,000 transparent envelopes to individuals throughout Northeast Ohio, each with a name and a brief biography of someone who died in the World Trade Center. The resulting wall of envelopes is filled with writing, drawings, collages and found objects in tribute to the victims. Visitors are invited to make their own commemorative envelopes.
From the Ashes: From Oct 6th-Nov 6th, 2001, Cuando in New York held an art, performance and music exhibition to reflect on the tragedy of the destruction of the WTC and the heroism and sacrifice of so many firefighters, police, rescue workers and ordinary citizens. Artist and curator, Frank Shifreen, also organized an exhibition called "911", that was a part of "From the Ashes." Some of the highlights of the exhibition included: electronic, technologic and internet connections coordinated by Willoughby Sharp; a portrait painting marathon coordinated by Dr. Ruhe and Frank Shifreen; Memorial, by Danny Scheffer, a self-replicating and Rhizomatic art project to be placed in neighborhoods and public places throughout the city.
"September 11: In Ashes": At the Heckscher Museum of Art, visitors are invited to write the name of a loved one on a brick, wrap it with a ribbon, and add it to the commemorative installation conceived by Springs aritst Margaret Kerr.
The Queens Museum of Art has transformed its famous panorama of New York City into a temporary memorial. A shaft of white light illuminates the World Trade towers as the lights in the rest of the 9,335- square-foot space grow dim. A figure-eight ribbon of red, white and blue adorns the buildings.
"Let's roll!" nose art, carrying on a long tradition for U.S. military bombers and fighters, has made its local debut at McChord Air Force base near Tacoma, WA. It's the Operation Enduring Freedom version of nose art long used by U.S. airmen to decorate their military aircraft in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. The new artwork features a bald eagle against an Old Glory background. A sword with the words "Spirit of 9-11" on the blade is set across the top. Across the bottom, it says, "Let's roll!" Those words are attributed to New Jersey software executive Todd Beamer on Sept. 11 before he and other passengers reportedly rushed their hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93. The art will remain on the planes until the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Information Technology, War, and Peace project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies is organising an exhibition and colloquium for this September, entitled "911+1." There will be a series of events that include work in the field of new media (video, instillation, and net art) that respond to September 11.
The Santa Fe Art Institute Opens 9/11 Refuge with the work of New York Artists of the Emergency Residency Program Wednesday, September 11th, 2002. The exhibition is coordinated by SFAI director Diane Karp, and will run through October 15th. The Santa Fe Art Institute was the only program to offer shelter to working artists after the attacks, and hosted over a hundred artists in their September 11th Emergency Residency Program. Artists who had been at work in studios close to the tower's collapse were invited to continue their interrupted projects or begin new ones in the peaceful climate of New Mexico.
Book Art:
Paralle: Tom Trusky, Director of the Hemingway Western Studies Center & Professor of English at Boise State University, has made a one sheet book entitled Paralle which uses photographic imagery relating to the Twin Towers attack. He made the book to illustrate to his undergraduate book arts students that simple and seemingly unpromising book formats might be employed to deal with complex, profound and tragic subjects.
Web Art:
Gerard Pas: Gerard Peter Pas — visual artist, object maker, painter, sculptor, performance and video artist — has created an online visual and text diary of September 11's impact on New York City.
After the Fall: Artists for Peace, Justice & Civil Liberties Gallery & Anthology: When Colorado's
"The Arts Paper" (TAP) put out a call for works by artists for peace, the response was so tremendous that they could not publish all of the work in their December 2001/January 2002 commemorative print issue.
Poster Art:
Posters for Peace: Downloadable versions of antiwar posters made after September 11.
Tower of Babble: Robbie Conal's latest poster, featuring W, Ashcroft and Cheney.
The Art For A Change website is dedicated to the arts and their role in transforming society, from creator Mark Vallen's own socially conscious paintings and drawings to the works of other like- minded artists who possess a critical vision. Buy an "I Am Not The Enemy" poster, featuring Mark's portrait of a Muslim woman.
Creative Time presents a public project by Hans Haacke commemorating 9/11. Poster campaign in New York City, March 11-25, 2002. The silhouette of the World Trade Center towers is cut out from white paper. The underlying background occupies the void. In the web version, your immediate desktop — windows, screen savers or files in use — will fill the void of the Towers.
"Missing: Last Seen at the World Trade Center" is an exhibition of the missing person fliers distributed throughout NYC by the friends and family of those who did not come home in the days after Sept. 11, 2001. The exhibition has traveled to Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Hollywood (FL), Portsmouth (VA), and is currently in Washington D.C at the Artists' Museum (through March 29, 2002). The fliers were collected by Louis Nevaer with financial support from the Mesoamerica Foundation.
Art Fights Back: During World War II, the federally funded Works Progress Administration posters were a visual vocabulary conveying simple and imperative messages to the public. In his series of more than two dozen dynamic illustrated posters, graphic artist John Sayles salutes history with his WPA-reminiscent style and tackles Sept. 11, terrorism and bin Laden by name, and the spirit of American patriotism. Contact: Sheree Clark, 515-279-2922.
Murals / Banners / Collages:
Bay State Reflects: On March 11, 2002, the city of Boston dedicated “The Bay State Reflects,'' a collage of artwork by almost 1,000 Boston Herald readers reacting to the Sept. 11 tragedy. Just a few days after the terrorist attacks, the Herald asked readers to share their feelings in poems, artwork, news clippings or photos. Their responses, ranging from fear and rage to hope for the future, were put together into a unique work of art that documents how this unprecedented event touched ordinary Americans. The collage wraps around the flag stand in front of the main entrance to City Hall.
Towers of Remembrance: This project is being undertaken by artists, students, and others from the Maine College of Art Community (MeCA) and greater Portland area. A changing collage of projected images will illuminate two columns of windows of the Porteus Building at MeCA, rising 60' above street level.
The Eleventh Day: Students at Spring Branch Middle School in Houston were moved by Picasso's Guernica, which hangs in two arts classrooms, to create a similar painting in response to September 11. Art teachers Suzanne Greene and David Butler chose approximately 20 images from over 200 individual paintings completed by their students and "collaged" them into a Picasso-like composition. 40 students participated in painting the mural on a front hallway floor.
With the help of Young Audiences of Greater Cleveland, a nonprofit arts-in-education program, the students at St. Bernadette School have memorialized September 11 with a mural in their school's main hallway. Students in grades 1-8 designed 574 tiles for the mural, which is 9 x 18 ft. The central focus in of God and children holding hands while circling the Earth. The rest of the mural includes a silhouette of the Statue of Liberty's torch and stars from the American flag.
Tree of Life: On September 16, 2001, Stuyvesant High School students, who were without school immediately after the World Trade Center attacks, painted two 12 ft x 80 ft banners with a motif of the Tree of Life growing out of the rubble of the World Trade Center. They researched translations of the Tree of Life into 40 different languages, which they incorporated into the design.
"9-11" & "Liberty And Justice 9-11": In Sept. 2001, a 12-story mural titled "9-11" was unveiled on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, CA. Artist Mike McNeilly created the mural as a tribute to the police, fire & rescue workers who risked and gave their lives to help others. A month later, McNeilly created "Liberty And Justice 9-11," a mural honoring America's Armed Forces. It depicts a female American soldier in full combat gear surrounded by images of a F-117A Stealth Fighter cloaked in the wing of a Flying Eagle, the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center. The "9-11" Tribute Mural is now being sent to New York for display.
Forever Tall: A Tribute to New York and New Yorkers: The Forever Tall mural created by artists Hope Gangloff and Jason Search can be seen at 35 Cooper Square between East 5th & 6th Streets in NYC.
Jeffrey Orr organized a group of 4 high school seniors in Chicago to paint a mural based around the concept of peace and unity. They spent 2 months organizing and planning, and then began work on the 8' X 60' feet canvas mural with 50 students from across the city. The teamsters Local 705 shipped the mural for free to New Yorks City's station where, on February 12, 2002, it was presented to the City of New York at Grand Central Station as part of a Sports and Arts in Schools festival. It was displayed in Grand Central Station for a few days and is now going to be permantly displayed a few blocks away from ground zero. Contact Jeffrey Orr at [email protected].
Art Crimes: September 11 Murals from Madison (WI), Atlanta (GA), Dallas (TX), Eugene (OR), New Haven (CT), Middletown (NY), New York City, as well as Macau, China, and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Painting:
"Face of Courage: Portraits in Remembrance of the Fallen Heroes of the FDNY and the NYPD" at Chesapeake Gallery, Harford Community College Foundation, Inc. Bel Air, MD from 2002-08-29 until 2002-10-17. The exhibition presents works by several portrait artists who capture the likeness of heroes of the September 11th from the FDNY and the NYPD. The Face of Courage is an ongoing project whose intentions are to provide families of fallen uniformed rescue workers with portraits of their loved ones and, and organize these paintings in a traveling commemorative exhibition. Donations are needed to help defer such expenses as transportation. Please call 410-836-4428 for further information on how your tax deductible donation can help support.
Anne Dushanko-Dobek's series called