Posted on 06/15/2005 8:40:03 PM PDT by Lorianne
Millions watched in horror as officer workers leapt from New York's World Trade Center Towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Kerry Skarbakka was horrified, too, by the TV images but -- and he tries to be careful when he explains this -- he was also inspired.
The scene sparked a fascination with falling -- the fear, the freedom, the fate.
"I was so distraught, I needed some way to find an artistic response,'' he said.
On Tuesday, the 34-year-old "performance photographer'' demonstrated his art by repeatedly plunging four stories from the roof of Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, his arms and legs flailing.
A cable and harness prevented him from crashing, but Skarbakka's descent was swift, stunning dozens of passersby who paused outside the museum at 220 E. Chicago.
'Can you believe this?'
As he fell, four photographers on his team took pictures. Those images likely will join other shots of Skarbakka tumbling from train trestles, trees and down stairs.
"Falling is such a metaphor for life in general. Mentally, physically and emotionally, from day to day, we fall. Even walking is falling: You take a step, fall and catch yourself,'' said Skarbakka, who lives in New York but studied photography at Chicago's Columbia College.
On the morning of 9/11, Skarbakka watched on television as trapped World Trade Center workers jumped from the fiery towers.
"I thought to myself, 'There is something in this I need to understand.' And so I started working with issues of control and loss of control,'' he said.
'A new way to express himself'
While others shoot the photos, Skarbakka, who was born in Minnesota and grew up in Tennessee, manipulates them to create his art.
Watching Skarbakka fall Tuesday, a woman jogging by shouted to a friend, "Can you believe this?''
A man walking his dog smirked. "When he hits the ground, that'll be art -- a pile of bloody fingers,'' he said.
But Joan W. Herring, visiting from Marietta, Ga., said Skarbakka's efforts took her back to her youth -- "climbing a tree and looking up at the sky.''
"For artists today, everything two-dimensional has been done,'' said Herring, a retired homemaker. "The contemporary artist has to find a new way to express himself.''
'I'd like to try it'
Theresa Ehrhart, a Near North Side psychologist, called Skarbakka's performance "fascinating'' and "unnerving.''
"I'd like to try it myself -- if there was something underneath to catch me,'' she said.
Skarbakka, whom the influential magazine ArtReview has cited as one of the art world's top 10 young photographers, has broken a rib, sprained an ankle and "bruised all parts of my body'' in pursuit of his craft.
"I like the challenge of putting my body through something,'' said Skarbakka, whose martial arts training helps control his falls.
Anyway, he adds with a shrug, unlike the leapers on 9/11, "We heal.''
wow--four stories... w/a bungie cord... he's really experiencing what those office workers experienced on 9/11... this is as bad as Drew Barrymore getting ecstatic over going "poo" in the woods...
OK I'LL JUST THROW UP!
GODSPEED!
I would face my fears alone, instead of seeking my 15 minutes by defecating on the graves of those who died.
I didn't read anywhere that he has been doused in jet fuel, burned alive, choked on poisonous smoke, or known for sure that he was dead.
Now THAT would be a statement!
The day I ripped the quadricep in my leg, I wrote a poem!
Sheesh, were do they find these people and who uses the phrase 'artistic response', anyway?
Skarbakka, Chewies younger, artistic, and somewhat "special" brother.
It's a pity his art won't make an impression.
Pure BS. That's all.
How about pictures?
One SICK puppy!
pathetic
Wow. He's on another level. I'm just a dope. All I got out of 9/11 is that we were attacked by evil terrorists practicing "The Religion of Peace", and that we need to pay them back by eradicating them.
I stubbed my toe the other day, and my artistic response was to yell FU*K!
lol my feelings too
Maybe this idiot can remind us again why we actually need the Patriot act.
"I was so distraught, I needed some way to find an artistic response,'' he said.
More blithering "art-speak" - today's modern artists ( I use the term loosely), are encouraged, trained, cajoled and sometimes downright demanded to "express" whatever thought or feelings that float through their transom, and because it's "art", it doesn't matter if it offends people - if anything, they'll say it's offensiveness makes it "better" "art" (and nets the artist press, the Holy Grail of the Moderne Artiste).
These dolts are so arrogant, that they think that they HAVE to express these feelings in ways that others HAVE to be involved, art to them is a narcissitic process: instead of trying to explore his feelings about 9-11 in a more mature, heartfelt manner that's also more PRIVATE, he makes a spectacle of it all, so above all else, no matter what the message is, or why he's doing it...
It's ALL ABOUT HIM.
People like this will never create high art - a true artist would seek to create a work that would transcend his own personal feelings and encompass the event, the people involved, the people who witnessed it, AND his own feelings.
The sculpture of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima is a perfect example.
This guy is a hack.
"For artists today, everything two-dimensional has been done,'' said Herring, a retired homemaker. "The contemporary artist has to find a new way to express himself.''
I missed this gem on the first pass.
To quote a famous miltary man: "Nuts!"
You sex life must be interesting!
Patience, FRiends.
We'll read about the 'artist' again soon.
Stupidity odds are in play.
Yeah, I've been artistic like that many times ... in fact, I'm probably a Michealangelo of artistic responses.
Let's see him eat his own head.
I would be more impressed if this idiot poured a can of gas on himself to burn alive like all those poor folks who died from the aircraft fuel and fire.
Although I don't see the "art" in all of this, I don't think he is mimicking the 9/11 jumpers in his pictures, as your title states. It was the "inspiration" for this project. I saw him on a local Chicago morning show yesterday and his next project is "drowning, suffocation, and strangulation". I, personally, do not see the "art" in all of this, but he mentioned he wants to capture all of the fears and phobias that people face. To each his own...
I am deathly afraid of beauty, mastery of a medium, composition, and expression of human ideals. Perhaps he could tackle that one for me.
Amen.
Art should question and hopefully assist the person viewing it.
A phony artist and his dopey, insulting stunt
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/319554p-273189c.html
I don't buy into the notion of a "mission" or social responsibility for art. It allows too many people to get away with sticking crosses in urine, or taping cigarette butts to a photo of an ashtray (yes, it actually won a prize) in the name of questioning. The claim that art has some kind of moral imperative allows "artists" to concentrate more on a statement than on refining a skill or creative faculty. Under this scenario, message overshadows everything and a piece of junk can get accepted into an art show when quality work is left behind.
A better article.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/319554p-273189c.html
LMAO! The one no one talks about.
"Walking & Falling"
I wanted you. And I was looking for you. But I couldn't find you. I wanted you. And I was looking for you all day. But I couldn't find you. I couldn't find you. You're walking. And you don't always realize it, but you're always falling. With each step you fall forward slightly. And then catch yourself from falling. Over and over, you're falling. And then catching yourself from falling. And this is how you can be walking and falling at the same time.
Art ping.
Let Sam Cree or I know if you want on or off this list.
Thanks for the ping, professor. I think.
What a self-absorbed idiot. My first and so far, only, reaction is that this guy is insulting all those who died on 9/11 and the rest who have died since then defending our freedom. The freedom which allows this moron to produce this bilge.
"I'd like to try it myself -- if there was something underneath to catch me,'' she said. This statement from a psychologist? OMG. There was no net at the bottom of the WTC's that day to catch those who had to choose between dying by burning to death, suffocating or jumping. This statement is sickening.
Interesting, and sorrowful, view of this. I can understand being wrapped up with wanting to know the feeling of something so that you can create from that feeling. But performance art has always seemed like long, slow, bad theater to me. Can't he draw the feeling of falling?
Those who can, draw. Those who can't, jump off of buildings???
Wow! Unbelievable. Who pays this 'artist' for his 'art'? Gee, I'll bet he got a govt grant...
Yeah, it's exactly like what the 9/11 workers experienced. Right. If that were really true, the office would be burning, people would be screaming in terror, and someone would cut his bungie as he 'leaps' off the edge. Oh, and he'd fall a lot more than 4 stories. What a disgrace.
Anyway, he adds with a shrug, unlike the leapers on 9/11, "We heal.''
UNLIKE THE LEAPERS ON 9/11, 'WE HEAL'!!?? WE HEAL??!! WTF? What a slap in the face, an ultimate insult to all those who died in that horrible way and to all those who survived and their families.
"What's going on up here? People are F*()ing dying, that's what's going on up here!"......... Dial Tone....
Why couldn't do some performance art based on the heroism of the people who stood up to the terrorists on the last plane that crashed in Pennsylvania? Sheesh - at least that would honor the dead, their bravery and the American spirit.
I'm sorry. I'm ranting. This story has just bugged me.
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