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“AMERICAN HERO, THE 9/11 MOVIE”
AN ART SHOW

by Wayne Coe

 

Journalist Robert Fisk who knew Bin Laden said, “(If Bin Laden was behind it) his strategy is to draw the US into the Afghanistan trap, the graveyard of empires.” The American empire follows collapsed empires, England and Russia, into the Afghanistan. Twenty years, two trillion dollars, and hundreds of thousands of indigenous Afghan lives later: Art, war and provocation meet.

New Yorkers experienced 9/11 as a hell, but for 99.9% of the planet, the events of September 11, 2001 were the most successful TV movie of all time. We, the public, experienced a media event. We lost no friends, saw no dust settled on our glassware, and experienced no unchangeable imagery seared in our retinas.

We saw an endless loop of a plane flying into first one tower, and then its twin. We saw people jumping reduced and ant like by 600mm lenses. But in fact, very little footage of the hellish, Boschian landscape inside and on the street below the towers was captured (or it’s suppressed). So my reaction to the horror was to read firsthand accounts — what people experienced on the ground, and in the towers. Since I was young, I've had this impulse. I want to see it!

An LA artist, I’ve spent my life creating visionary imagery for the entertainment industry, designing posters, movie titles, storyboards and effects. My day job is to visualize what has never been seen before, even what is physically impossible. As a result, "American Hero," my 2004 show at 825 Gallery, explored first-person experiences of the event: the subject of our nightmares and imaginings, through the prism of a film release. Burning people walking through the mall under the towers. Elevators lit by fire, filled with floating people as it falls. Jumpers whose final choice coincided with the building's collapse. A woman talking to a police officer, not yet realizing that she's been sawn in half.

When important social events lack visual witnesses, art history categorizes art that envisions it as "history painting." Manet, Goya, Gericault and Picasso painted historic tragedy, filling in an imagistic gap in our collective conscience. There were no surviving witnesses to the impact of Flight 11 inside the towers, yet this transubstantiating instant is the locus of our universal imaginative fixation.

The lenticular was one piece in a show filled with different styles and forms, an interdisciplinary and installation-specific piece. “American Hero” presented the 9/11 tragedy as a disaster movie, including movie posters, storyboards, a film script and promotional materials (all hand painted). Tickets to the "premiere" were scattered across the gallery’s red carpet.

My choice of a lenticular to convey 9/11’s sacred moment of an American Airlines fuselage penetrating the tower's interior office space combines my experience in cinematic tradecraft with my personal impression of 9/11 as a televised movie.

Long before handheld TVs and digital gifs, a lenticular was an old school application to animate an image or slogan. From one angle, you might read, “Coming Soon,” then with a shift of perspective, you'd read “AMERICAN HERO!” The process is complicated and expensive, as it involves a plastic “lens” which covers an image of two technically interlaced images.

The idea to contrast the veil of corporate reality with the violence of its negation came together as a two-image lenticular. In it, a hunky-dory office--graphs pointing up, copier clicking, capitalism on the go--transforms into the haunting, tortured strains of Wagner’s “Gotterdammerung” exploding over a surreal vision of the Apocalypse. But pivoting, the office is restored to innocence and peace. In my lenticular, people die and are resurrected. Like a thriller, the threat is enjoyed, but the hero escapes unharmed.

Reactions to “Fuselage Two-Image Lenticular” were surprising and uncanny — buyers loved it, bought it, and raved about it.

 

When Bert Green Fine Art began selling the lenticular, the gallerist said, “It’s the fastest selling print I’ve ever had.” La Luz de Jesus, the gallery in Los Feliz, turned it into an annuity, selling about two a month. For me, the contrast between this sacred moment and the schlocky lenticular form (think Cracker Jacks) was high irony. But I was struck and profoundly moved by New Yorkers' veneration of this catastrophic penetration image. They hung them quite publicly in their homes, displayed the showcard on their refrigerators. Comedian Paul Zaloom hung his lenticular above his sink, so as he did dishes, the images would slam back and forth.

Today, there are 20 remaining pieces in the edition, and they are available for purchase. “Fuselage: Two-Image Lenticular” is 15 inches tall by 38 inches wide. The cost is $1100 plus shipping. To inquire and send an email, Click Here!

________________________________

WAYNE COE is an artist. The Southern California native graduated with honors with a BFA in Illustration and Film from Art Center College of Design. He has been nominated for several EMMYs and is the winner of one. Coe lives with his family in Chatham, NY. His work can be found at www.WayneCoe.com

Coes' work can be found in the Art Report Today virtual exhibition "WORKER" Click Here to see the show!

All artwork is courtesy and copyright of the artist.



The artist Wayne Coe with art advisor, educator and gallerist Molly Barnes

 

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Gordy Grundy

Gordy Grundy

 

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