Man falls from building to create 9/11 art
Last Updated: Friday, June 17, 2005 | 4:07 PM ET
CBC Arts
Wearing a safety harness, Kerry Skarbakka fell more than 30 times from the five-story Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago on Tuesday.
As he dropped through the air, Skarbakka's picture was taken by a team of his fellow artists. The plan is to alter the photos so that the wires which stopped him from hitting the ground are removed – making him look like a businessman in free fall.
The artist, who lives in New York, said he became interested in falling as a subject for his work after watching the television images of workers jumping to their deaths from the twin towers in 2001.
Kerry Skarbakka stages a fall designed to evoke the images of the World Trade Center victims who fell to their deaths. (AP photo)
"I was so distraught, I needed some way to find an artistic response," he told the Chicago Sun-Times, adding that he now sees falling as a metaphor for life.
"Mentally, physically and emotionally, from day to day, we fall. Even walking is falling: You take a step, fall and catch yourself," he said.
The falling Sept. 11 victims became a subject of media debate in the days after the attacks, with some news outlets deeming the images too disturbing to rebroadcast. Some magazines and newspapers also refused to publish the pictures.
Skarbakka has mounted exhibitions of his photos from similar jumps in the past. He was named by ArtReview last year as a rising star in the world of photography.
The stunt drew a crowd of Chicagoans, some of whom approved of Skarbakka's work.
"It was fabulous," said onlooker Darlene Schuff. "I just wanted to be a part of it. It's a happening."
The Mayor of New York, however, did not concur. Michael Bloomberg called the staged falls "nauseatingly offensive."
Rosemarie Giallombardo, whose son Paul Salvio died in the terrorist attack, echoed Bloomberg's comments.
"What kind of a sick individual is he? Tell him to go jump off the Empire State Building and see how it feels," Giallombardo told New York's Daily News. "He's an artist? Go paint a bowl of fruit or something."
