Geezil
06-16-2005, 09:13 AM
...after you've spat in his face.
Go jump in a lake, pal!
9/11 families rage at photog's fake plunges
BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Brooklyn artist evoked the images of people who leaped to their deaths from the World Trade Center by repeatedly jumping off a Chicago musuem - outraging the families of some 9/11 victims.
Kerry Skarbakka, who wore a safety harness under his clothes, told the Daily News that Tuesday's 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.
But some people who lost loved ones in the terror attacks told The News they were disgusted by the very idea of Skarbakka's "art" project.
"What kind of sick individual is he?" asked Rosemarie Giallombardo of Midwood, Brooklyn, who lost her son, Paul Salvio, on 9/11. "Tell him to go jump off the Empire State Building and see how it feels. He's an artist? Go paint a bowl of fruit or something."
Chris Burke, a former Cantor Fitzgerald employee whose brother Tom was among 658 of the firm's employees killed on 9/11, was appalled. "My friends jumped out of buildings and it wasn't an art form," said Burke, head of Tuesday's Children, the nonprofit 9/11 survivors support group. "It was a last resort."
Mayor Bloomberg called Skarbakka's project "nauseatingly offensive."
The strong reactions came a day after Skarbakka, a photographer, jumped more than 30 times from the four-story Museum of Contemporary Art while a crowd of hundreds watched.
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."
Skarbakka said he was horrified when he saw the attacks on TV. He started taking pictures of himself falling from trees, roofs and ladders - winning him art world praise.
He said he didn't mean to offend anyone in New York, where he moved last year.
"I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings," Skarbakka said. "I can't back down from what I've done. I can only try to explain it and be as responsible as I can about it."
Sculptor Tom Loback, whose nephew, Firefighter Terence McShane, was killed on 9/11, said it doesn't sound like art to him.
"Just because as an artist you're free to do something doesn't mean it's any good," Loback said.
But not every relative of a World Trade Center victim was ready to condemn Skarbakka.
"As crazy as it is, we all have the right to do that," said Mindy Kleinberg of East Brunswick, N.J., who lost her husband, Alan. "I'm just not exactly sure what he's trying to get from that."
Skarbakka isn't the first artist fascinated by the falling victims of 9/11. Sculptor Eric Fischl displayed a life-size bronze called "Tumbling Woman" at Rockefeller Center, and artist Sharon Paz put falling silhouettes on the windows of the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.
Both displays were yanked after complaints. With Janet McLaren, David Saltonstall and Richard Schapiro
Originally published on June 16, 2005
Go jump in a lake, pal!
9/11 families rage at photog's fake plunges
BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Brooklyn artist evoked the images of people who leaped to their deaths from the World Trade Center by repeatedly jumping off a Chicago musuem - outraging the families of some 9/11 victims.
Kerry Skarbakka, who wore a safety harness under his clothes, told the Daily News that Tuesday's 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.
But some people who lost loved ones in the terror attacks told The News they were disgusted by the very idea of Skarbakka's "art" project.
"What kind of sick individual is he?" asked Rosemarie Giallombardo of Midwood, Brooklyn, who lost her son, Paul Salvio, on 9/11. "Tell him to go jump off the Empire State Building and see how it feels. He's an artist? Go paint a bowl of fruit or something."
Chris Burke, a former Cantor Fitzgerald employee whose brother Tom was among 658 of the firm's employees killed on 9/11, was appalled. "My friends jumped out of buildings and it wasn't an art form," said Burke, head of Tuesday's Children, the nonprofit 9/11 survivors support group. "It was a last resort."
Mayor Bloomberg called Skarbakka's project "nauseatingly offensive."
The strong reactions came a day after Skarbakka, a photographer, jumped more than 30 times from the four-story Museum of Contemporary Art while a crowd of hundreds watched.
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."
Skarbakka said he was horrified when he saw the attacks on TV. He started taking pictures of himself falling from trees, roofs and ladders - winning him art world praise.
He said he didn't mean to offend anyone in New York, where he moved last year.
"I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings," Skarbakka said. "I can't back down from what I've done. I can only try to explain it and be as responsible as I can about it."
Sculptor Tom Loback, whose nephew, Firefighter Terence McShane, was killed on 9/11, said it doesn't sound like art to him.
"Just because as an artist you're free to do something doesn't mean it's any good," Loback said.
But not every relative of a World Trade Center victim was ready to condemn Skarbakka.
"As crazy as it is, we all have the right to do that," said Mindy Kleinberg of East Brunswick, N.J., who lost her husband, Alan. "I'm just not exactly sure what he's trying to get from that."
Skarbakka isn't the first artist fascinated by the falling victims of 9/11. Sculptor Eric Fischl displayed a life-size bronze called "Tumbling Woman" at Rockefeller Center, and artist Sharon Paz put falling silhouettes on the windows of the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.
Both displays were yanked after complaints. With Janet McLaren, David Saltonstall and Richard Schapiro
Originally published on June 16, 2005