Art from the Ashes One artist who was influenced by the attacks is Chilean-born artist Sebastian Errazuriz. Errazuriz’s first major solo museum exhibition, Look Again is currently on display at the Carnegie Museum. Inspired by the events, Errazuriz has created various pieces in memory of the terrorist attacks. The collection is called Never Forget. Rachel Delphia, the Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at Carnegie Museum of Art, wrote, when talking about the exhibition, that Errazuriz’s artwork “begins with the basic tenet that everything we think we know or believe begs to be reconsidered.” The pieces are often dark while making the viewer question something. The artist’s image of the two burning Marlboro …show more content…
cigarettes shows that many Americans recall the events of that day without even trying. The image has become commonplace in our society. It is powerful and easily recognized. This is also the case with the piece Double Trouble. In this piece Errazuriz has fused together two toy planes to symbolize those that were crashed into the World Trade Center that morning. The crash of the second plane was televised and the majority of Americans watched on television as it happened. This piece forces people to recall that. It brings back memories of where they were as they watched it happen. People are able to remember what they were doing in blinding detail. The imagery is the pieces provoke an emotional response. Lady Liberty is a piece created using an old National Geographic postcard depicting the Statue of Liberty. Errazuriz alters it by adding passenger planes around the statue that point at the statue from various angles. Errazuriz often incorporates “trash” or various items into his pieces. He does this to shift the meaning. Errazuriz takes an optimistic icon, which symbolizes a friendship between France and the US, and then adds the “attackers”. The patriotic meaning shifts to something more negative. It shows the shift in foreign relations after the attacks. America was hesitant when it came to other countries. This is a trend that lasts to this day. Other emotions that Errazuriz forces the viewer to acknowledge are vulnerability and uneasiness. Errazuriz does this by taking miniature wax monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty and burning them. Collectively, these are called the Under Attack Candles. They become deformed to show that uneasiness that was felt after the attacks. Not all of his work is the type that is displayed in museum though. Public art is one of his more common mediums of displaying art. He entered the Creative Time’s annual Sandcastle Competition where he created the shadow of a plane by pouring water onto the sand of the beach. This image once would have held no meaning, as it was a common image before the attacks. It was simply a form of transportation. Now it has come to symbolize a tragic time in United States history. It brings back memories of an event that we are still trying to get over as a country. It changed so many things such as the way that we live our lives on a daily basis. A monument in Liberty State Park in Jersey City honors victims of the tragedy from New Jersey. The memorial is called the “Empty Sky” Memorial after a song by singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It was designed by Jessica Jamroz and Frederic Schwarz to appear as though the two World Trade Center towers are lying on their sides. The names of the 746 victims from the state are etched in stainless steel on the side. The piece is 30 feet high and 208 feet, 10 inches long, which is said to be the exact width of the actual tower. One unanticipated consequence of using stainless steel for the interior of the monument is that, since the outer walls are made up of unfinished concrete, a halo-like reflection sometimes appears when the sun shines down at a certain angle. The memorial cost $12 million to create and was paid for by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the state of New Jersey and also by the New Jersey Building Authority. Leading up to the construction of the monument there were protests from groups who said that it blocked views of lower Manhattan and that the environmental department of the state did not allow for enough public input about the project. This park is in a heavily trafficked area so the presence of this memorial forces people (mostly tourists) to remember the tragic events. The memorial itself is at an angle so that the end points to where the towers once stood. It forces recognition and allows for the people who lost their lives to live on in the hearts of many. The 9/11 Peace Story Quilt was a project designed by Faith Ringgold.
Ringgold began making quilts in 1983 to narrate racial and gender issues. She learned how to quilt from her grandmother, who had learned from her own mother, a former slave. She collaborated on the piece with New York City students that ranged from age 8 to 19. The purpose of the quilt was to show the “importance of respect, understanding, and communication across cultures and religions to achieve the goal of piece.” It was created using three 72-by-50 inch panels. On each of the panels there are 12 squares, all with the theme of peace. The quilt was commissioned in 2006, 5 years after the attacks, by InterRelations and was loosely based on a book. The piece focuses on how the events of 9/11 affected the children living in NYC. It is a view that is often overlooked. Many just focus on the effect on the people who lost loved ones or where directly involved in the events but children were also influenced. Many can’t really remember a world before 9/11. They have a handful of memories from before that time. All they see is the increased patriotism that was brought about by the attacks. They see increased airport security and a decrease in immigration/tourism. They do not know of a time when these things were not apparent. This quilt shows their reactions and thoughts about the tragedy that shook the United
States. The most temporary piece of artwork commemorating the attacks is the Tribute in Light. From dawn on September 11th to dawn the next day, two beams of light resembling the towers fill the Manhattan skyline. Michael Ahern was asked to create the memorial on an empty lot that sits near ground zero, the name given to the plot of land where the Twin Towers once stood. The piece was once located on a lot in the West Side Highway but was later moved to the roof of the Battery Parking Garage on Morris St. Ahern has previously worked on pieces for the New York Stock Exchange and the Grammys. He was that “This project is the favorite out of everything [he does]” and describes it as “pure and simple.” The tribute has come to symbolize America’s survival and the call to carry on. This piece can be seen from a sixty-mile radius. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce and was initially overseen by the Municipal Arts Society and Creative Time. It is now under the supervision of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Mickie O'Connell has worked with the team of the tribute for over eight years. It holds special significance for him as he was on the search and rescue teams that looked for survivors in the rubble during the days following the attacks. It has become a world-renowned icon of remembrance, showing up in magazines and online sources from around the world since it was first introduced six months after the attacks. It is a simple yet obvious way of honoring those who were lost, along with those who worked to get the country back on its feet after the events. Roy Ray's installation Evilution: Where Their Footsteps Left No Trace is permanently on display at the National September 11 Memorial Museum. Roy said, "I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that it will be part of the permanent collection, with the potential to touch the hearts and minds of the millions who visit there." The piece provokes memories of the destruction of towers. The focus of the panel is the human loss. Nearly 3,000 people left their trace around the tower themselves. The panels show this by using parts of computer keyboards and cell phones. Ray wants people to think about the innocent victims of terrorist attacks. He evokes a feeling of sorrow and sadness along with anger. We need to heal and rebuild. The other panels depict the Holocaust, the bombings of Dresden and Coventry, and the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. All four show the unnecessary loss of human life due to a group’s need to succeed and win. Groups do not think about the consequences of their actions. The wounds of past conflicts need to be healed. Ray hopes that his work will put an end to the loss of innocent lives even in times of conflict. He is using his art to call for a change. He hopes that they provoke enough emotion to do so. No one will ever be able to forget the events of September 11th, 2001. The images from that day are some of the most vivid. Artists have used these images in their artwork. They hope to provoke emotions and memories of the events that occurred on this day. The pieces usually have a somber tone to honor those who died and to keep them in our minds and in our hearts.
During the 1950s, African Americans struggled against racial segregation, trying to break down the race barrier. Fifteen year old Melba Patillo Beals was an ordinary girl, until she’s chosen with eight other students to integrate Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. They are named the Little Rock and fight through the school year, while students and segregationists are threatening and harassing them. Warriors Don’t Cry—a memoir of Beals’ personal experience—should be taught in schools because it teaches students to treat each other equally and to be brave, while it also shows the struggle of being an African-American in the 1950s. Another lesson taught in the retelling is that everyone can make a change.
In the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, the author describes what her reactions and feelings are to the racial hatred and discrimination she and eight other African-American teenagers received in Little Rock, Arkansas during the desegregation period in 1957. She tells the story of the nine students from the time she turned sixteen years old and began keeping a diary until her final days at Central High School in Little Rock. The story begins by Melba talking about the anger, hatred, and sadness that is brought up upon her first return to Central High for a reunion with her eight other classmates. As she walks through the halls and rooms of the old school, she recalls the horrible acts of violence that were committed by the white students against her and her friends.
Quilt making in the African American community has a long history dating back to the 18th century and has been important for ways of communicating social and political conditions. During the time when African Americans were enslaved, quilting became a popular way of communicating safety to African Americans escaping their way to freedom, up north. The tradition of Quilting was past down form generation to generation, by mother’s to daughter’s as a way of teaching the daughter about the past and giving them a valuable skill that could add to their lives. In the series Bitter Nest by Faith Ringgold, Ringgold’s communicates her life experiences with her daughters though using the art of story telling, traditional African materials, the art of quilting, and elements of art to make a unique story-quilt that appeals to African Americans of all ages.
We live in a world that is always changing and as such creates inequality and suffering. Many people feel the need to change this and hope for a better world. Even though people have different religions and beliefs, we all have some hope,which motivates us to wake up everyday and make a difference in this world. Hope is what brings us together to fight for a common cause. As Duncan-Andrade explains throughout his article, “Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete,” it is not enough to hope for a better future, especially for young people of color because hoping will not bring the needed change we expect. “Growing Roses in Concrete”(Duncan-Andrade 5) is not an easy task because of the many circumstances and policies that create inequality in these schools and in the society as a whole. In urban schools in the United States, there is more disparately and inequality among young people of color and while educators have tried to solve such issues through different means, the problem still prevails and this has just created “false hope”. Duncan-Andrade states that th...
Acosta portrays the quilt as a memoir type deal and makes it into a precious piece of herself for her kids to have with them. Walker signifies the quilts as being special to her and her family heritage and refused to give them to someone who won't respect their meaning, even if it is her own daughter. Anything has what it takes to be of some significance and it doesn’t matter what that thing is. What means the most is how valued that significance is and how well the heritage is kept
September 11, 2001 will be replayed and remembered in the minds of this American generation as one of the greatest tragedies on domestic soil. In one day, the world was dramatically altered; but in the days that followed, no group of Americans was affected more intensely nor uniquely than Arab-Americans. Once in a Promised Land, the 2007 novel by Laila Halaby, depicts the real world aftermath which assaulted one fictional Arab couple. Halaby's work accurately portrays the circumstances Arab-Americans found themselves in after the 9/11 attacks, highlighting several themes relating to patriotism, fear, and shame through her accessible characters and narrative stylings.
She shows the jobs young girls do in the factories, “They spin… they weave… They stamp” By showing a list of work the young girls do, Kelley appeals to her audience’s emotional sense in order to deliver message of dissolving child labor. She also uses rhetorical questions followed by solutions in order to question what must be done and how to do it. She states, “what can we do to free our consciousness?... we can enlist the workingmen… to free the children”. By doing this, Kelley forcefully suggests that her audience consciousness are enslaved with the idea of child labor. She states her and her audience must solve the problem with unity to enlist the workingmen on the jobs. This gets back to to Kelley’s purpose of destroying child labor. By offering
The quilts were pieced together by Mama, Grandma Dee, and Big Dee symbolizing a long line of relatives. The quilts made from scraps of dresses worn by Grandma Dee, Grandpa Jarrell’s Paisley shirts, and Great Grandpa Ezra’s Civil War uniform represented the family heritage and values, and had been promised to Mama to Maggie when she married. However, Dee does not understand the love put into the making of the quilts, neither does she understand the significance of the quilts as part of her family heritage. It is evident she does not understand the significance of the quilt, having been offered one when went away to college declaring them “as old-fashioned” and “out of style”. She does not care about the value of the quilts to her family, rather she sees it as a work of art, valuable as an African heritage but not as a family heirloom. She wants the quilts because they are handmade, not stitched with around the borders. She tells Mama, “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!... She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use… But, they’re priceless!.. Maggie would put them on her the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!” (317). The quilt signifies the family pride and history, which is important to Mama. She makes the decision to give the quilt to Maggie who will appreciate it more than Dee, to whom she says, “God knows I been saving ‘em for long enough with
So in the end, everyone has to make their own interpretation of this piece of art. If the goal of art is to prompt a strong emotional response from those who view it, then ultimately, the Banksy painting “Looters” succeeded. However, the memory of the actions taken by the soldiers of the National Guard after Hurricane Katrina will live on in the hearts and minds of Katrina victims, not because of a painting by some European of them removing any valuables they could find, but by the little paintings of x’s that the soldiers left on all houses where they removed any survivors they could find.
..., Thought, & Appreciation: Re-examining Our Values Amid Terrorism Through The Giver." ALAN v29n3 - Grief, Thought, & Appreciation: Re-examining Our Values Amid Terrorism Through The Giver. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. .
Margulies, Joseph. 2013. What Changed When Everything Changed: 9/11 and the Making of National Identity. Yale University Press.
In conclusion, this whole poem has symbolic historic value because of its theme surrounding The Children’s March and The Birmingham Church Bombing. The author successfully brought the pain and impact the event made by taking Addie Mae Collins’ death. “He makes the sadness of an infamous tragedy vivid and heartfelt to everyone who reads it, whether they have connection to the tragedy or not.” (Devitt, 1) By approaching these
Collins uses visualization, emotions, and comparisons within several natural and man-made objects in respect to all the victims that tragically passed away that dreadful day. By specifically identifying several individuals in this poem, Collins found a way to honor those people that died on September 11, 2001.
“Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100” by Martín Espada, is a poem in praise of immigrants who worked at the top of the World Trade Center. Throughout Espada’s piece, the author committed himself in representing and celebrating the lives, stories and history of those who have dealt with a tragic loss. He successfully tells a story, and respectfully shows his emotions, logic and credibility for the individuals who were involved in the attack on September 11. He does not hesitate to argue how the society has had a lack of knowledge when it came to the tragic event at the World Trade Center, because he did not find justice in labeling police officers and firefighters as heroes. His purpose was to give credit to the innocent, hardworking people who were not recognized, but were still harmed by the attack.
From the day a person is born, everyday is a stepping stone towards their place in the world. Every person met and every book read is a new opportunity for a person to learn more about the world as well as themselves. With this new information, however, there is a serious price. The sweet innocence of a child is one the rarest and most treasured things in all of the world because the journey that every child takes. Even now as I write this on the fifteen year anniversary, I can say that I lost a significant part of my innocence on September 11th, 2001. I silently reflect on this and hope that I am the only generation that not only has to experience a tragedy like this at such a young age. But alas, The generation of my father and his father and on and on after that have always been a part of a war. Whether it is fighting on the battlefield or watching the horrors afar everyone