You are on an individual archive page

Click here to return to the main page


Wikipedia does good things. Reward them.

The Daily Links Page
Got a link to submit?
  • New Evidence Proves First Flag Made By Betsy Ross Actually Shirt For Gay Friend
  • Colbert Leads Huntsman in S.C.
  • Polish prosecutor 'shoots self after news conference'
  • Jim Rome leaving ESPN. Bonus: Footage of Jim Rome getting attacked by Jim Everett & crying like a baby
  • Broncos, Tim Tebow stun Steelers in OT, win 29-23 in NFL playoffs
       [ 2 comments ]
  • Video: Remember 2008
       [ 1 comment ]
  • Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop faces weapon and drug charges
  • Video: Green Bay anchorman loves lamp
  • Video: Rodgers & Raji in the new Discount Double Check ad
  • Jim Rome: out of The Jungle and onto the (horse) farm
  • New IL Law Requires Photo ID To Buy Drain Cleaner
  • Fawn Cuddles Kitten, Hearts Explode
  • The priest who changed the course of history for the worse... by rescuing four-year-old Hitler from drowning in icy river
  • Get Fit or Get Fined: Web Service Offers to Charge You for Skipping the Gym
  • Fine proposed for botching US national anthem
  • Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually
       [ 1 comment ]
  • Edina boutique takes heat for trashing $4,000-plus gowns
  • Law Student Goes 'Homeless by Choice' Touts Value of Gym Club Membership
  • VIDEO: Snoop Dogg on 'The Price Is Right'
  • Flynn and Out
       [ 3 comments ]
  • Don't put Bielema on the firing line
       [ 1 comment ]
  • Your end of the season Vikings comment thread
       [ 2 comments ]
  • Mass. budget motel fights forfeiture by feds
  • Vikings scrutinize downtown Mpls. stadium site near basilica
       [ 2 comments ]
  • Kelly Clarkson criticized on Twitter after singer endorses Ron Paul for President 
  • Political Predictions for 2012
  • We're All Doing The Best We Can
  • Video Of Little Girl Getting Pissed Off About Pink Toys Will Make Your Heart Swell
  • The 10 best sports-related Hitler Reactions of 2011
  • Happy Endings on the housing crisis
  • Why You Just Got New York Times Spam
  • There Will Be No Friday This Week In Samoa
  • The Most Hipster State In The US
  • Online Merchants Home in on Imbibing Consumers
       [ 1 comment ]
  • On islamic fashion
       [ 1 comment ]
  • Sears as Lampert's 'Mismanaged Asset' Loses Customers to Macy's
       [ 1 comment ]
  • 5 social network predictions for 2012
  • Cheetah, chimp star of classic Tarzan movies, dies at 80
  • The Hottest Things on TV in 2011
  • Beer in cans: It's not just for Bud anymore
  • Seven Packers earn Pro Bowl selections
  • The Worst Angry Christmas Tweets In the World
       [ 2 comments ]
  • Minnesota cities try to hold back on rented housing
  • Why Iowa Shouldn't Vote First Anymore
  • Some Falcons Players Upset Drew Brees Went For The Record Last Night
  • We've Identified Jilted Packergirl
  • With its 'W' initiative, ESPN tries to solve the equation of serving women sports fans
       [ 2 comments ]
  • Owner surprised to find cat regularly catches bus
  • Charles Barkley: Skip Bayless Has Surpassed Peter Vecsey As The Biggest Jackass In The History Of Journalism
  • Handicapping the 2011 NFL MVP Race, 2.0

     

  • On The Edge of Good Taste

       June 17, 2005

    I read an article yesterday about a performance artist who jumped off of buildings (with a safety harness) the other day in Chicago. Kerry Skarbakka jumped repeatedly from the Museum of Contempory Art in Chicago while a crowd of people looked on:

    A crew of photographers hired by Skarbakka captured him in midair, arms and legs flailing wildly. Some of the images will end up in gallery catalogues and museum walls - part of a series of pictures to be called "Life Goes On."

    "I thought it was my responsibility to respond" to 9/11, he said. "This happened to be my response to that - my sheer inability to do anything about [watching people fall], my lack of control over the situation."

    Not surprisingly, this is ticking some people off. New York City's Mayor Bloomberg calls it "nauseatingly offensive." And apparently he's not alone:

    The NY Daily News said it had been deluged by messages complaining about the stunt.

    “He just offended an entire city,” said Chris Burke, a former Cantor Fitzgerald employee whose brother Tom was killed in the attacks.

    “I had to watch my friends jumping out of that building.”

    I understand why these people are upset. But, I can also understand what would drive an artist to think about the events of 9/11. These pictures still make me think:

    I think about these people in the windows. I wonder what they were thinking and my heart breaks for what happened to them. Skarbakka says his "stunt was his way of asking questions about what went through the minds of those who jumped from the towers and others who watched helplessly." I ask myself those same questions. How did they find the courage to jump? Or, how did they keep up hope to stay there? How were they able to calmly say goodbye to their loved ones?

    I think that art is an appropriate way to try to answer them. Human tragedies have been portrayed in films, photographs, paintings, songs and more for as long as art has existed. I think it's a way that society as a whole copes with the event.

    Believe me, I do feel for the 9/11 families, but it's not up to them to determine how the rest of us remember and cope with our feelings about that day. They may not want to be reminded of what happened to their loved one. I understand that. But, at the same time, I think some of us do need or want to be reminded of the human cost that day.

    It's important that we never forget that day. Otherwise it's too easy to believe the Ward Churchill's of the world who insinuate that America got what it deserved that morning. Some days you have to try to put yourself in the shoes of a Cantor Fitzgerald employee that morning and try (even though it may be impossible) to understand what he or she went through. Then, you'll understand just exactly why we're fighting a War on Terror and why we have 500 evil people locked up and being interrogated at Gitmo. I'm afraid that if we forget what really happened on 9/11 we'll forget why it's so important to never let it happen again.


    Posted by at June 17, 2005 12:43 PM

        The trackback entry for this page is : http://www.inthehat.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/958

     

    Trackback Entries
      Daily Pundit linked with No, It's Not "Offensive"

     


    Comments

    #  June 18th, 2005 12:10 AM      mbrlr
    The war on terror you describe was actually an assault on Iraq, a country which had nothing at all to do with 9/11 and whose WMD are nonexistent. A good number of those in Guantanamo are guilty of absolutely nothing, as are many of those we picked up and let other countries interrogate for us so we wouldn't have to worry about the law or the courts. But since those who may be innocent in Guantanamo and elsewhere are beyond Geneva, as it were, they have little recourse.

    We come close to torturing people nowadays, and there are arguments to be made that we've crossed the line.

    It's important to get bin Laden and important not to let 9/11 happen again, but is it worth losing the very things that define us a nation --- our respect for the law chief among them?

    How about that British memo, btw?  
     
    #  June 18th, 2005 8:12 AM      KVBigSis
    I agree with you that this was an appropriate subject for an artistic interpretation, and I think the artist involved was genuinely trying to do that - to use art to look at real events in a new way.

    But, just as the victims' families can't tell you how to react or feel about 9/11, you can't tell them how they should feel about this artist's work.

    Part of me wishes the artist had defended his work, and said "I know it's painful and it's horrible, but it's the truth." And part of me thinks maybe it's just too soon.  
     
    #  June 18th, 2005 8:27 AM      BrianH
    Give it a rest mbrlr, this is not the topic to preach your rhetoric. I'll argue it on some other posting, but not under these pictures.

     
     
    #  June 18th, 2005 8:47 AM      kris
    I'm not telling victim's families how to feel or saying they shouldn't bitch about this. They can bitch all they want, and, because of their status, they'll have a venue to bitch. I'm just saying I don't agree with them.

    Some of the quotes from this particular artist make him sound like he may indeed be a jackass, but, KV, I'd agree, I wish he hadn't apologized.  
     
    #  June 18th, 2005 9:19 PM      mbrlr
    "Then, you'll understand just exactly why we're fighting a War on Terror and why we have 500 evil people locked up and being interrogated at Gitmo. I'm afraid that if we forget what really happened on 9/11 we'll forget why it's so important to never let it happen again."


    Hence the preaching. Guantanamo and the war in Iraq have little to do with 9/11 and everything to do with who and what we are as a nation.

    Services are at 11:00 and 5:00 on Sundays with daily mass at 12:00. All are welcome, but only liberal Democrats may take communion.  
     
    #  June 21st, 2005 2:22 PM      homocon
    Excellent post, Kris. It is important not to forget, and yet our natural instinct is to do just that -- to turn away from something so brutal and horrible in order to keep placing one daily foot in front of the other. At first glance, the artist jumping off the museum just seems like an attention starved jack***, but when I actually stopped to think about what it was that he was attempting to do, it gave me the willies.  
     

     

     


      page rendered in 0.0799 seconds | ©2004, 2005 Dummocrats.com