Revisiting History

By Raisa Clavijo

In September, LMNT inaugurated “PAUSE,” an exhibition that a decade after 9/11 causes us to reflect on the still unanswered questions surrounding this event. The idea arose from conversations between the artists Ashley Cumberland, Rachel Hughes, and Gino Tozzi. For the past 10 years, each of them has independently investigated those gaps that remain unfilled in the investigation of events surrounding the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center. At the beginning of this year, they gathered together all evidence and began creating artworks based on these facts. Artist Billie Grace Lynn also participated in “PAUSE.” The aim of the exhibition, soon to be traveling to New York, is not only to delve into questions that need clarification, but also to use art as a means of healing, sharing opinions and honoring the victims, their families, and the many people still affected with health issues to this day.

Artists Ashley Cumberland and Gino Tozzi (Center: Interior Column Replica from WTC, 2011, steel)

The exhibition shines a light on the controversial theme of the manipulation of information by the media and official sources. The destruction of the World Trade Center is the first time, since the British burned Washington in 1814, that the United States has been attacked on its own soil. Due to the magnitude of this event, the government should have been interested in investigating the real causes and circumstances behind it. Nevertheless, numerous details remain murky. The budget allotted to the investigation of the 9/11 events was only $14 million, originally budgeted at $3 million. These are ridiculous figures when compared to the $75 million the government allotted for the investigation of the Challenger shuttle disaster in 1986, and the same amount was designated for the Lewinsky affair in 1998.

There are still many unanswered questions surrounding 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that ensued-absurd wars in territories that were devastated and from which those responsible for the destruction of the Twin Towers were never found. They were wars unleashed in the name of democracy, genocide masquerading as “humanitarian intervention,” a war machine used to conceal an invasion in search of new sources of energy, a campaign that only benefitted the arms industry and the multinational companies. Ten years later, while the country is struggling with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we realize that actions were orchestrated to, among many other things, divert the attention of the average American away from the impending disaster-the unexpected growth of financial institutions, the flight of jobs to cheap labor markets in Asia and Latin America, the dismantling of public services, the deterioration of social rights, low salaries, the real estate bubble and exceptionally high unemployment, to cite just a few of the problems that currently affect this country. The works of these artists do not pretend to assert absolute truths, but rather through their proposals they seek to move the public to reflect on these issues.

Installation view (Left: TIMELINE SKYLINE (2011), by Ashley Cumberland and Right: Lens (2011) by Billie Grace Lynn)

Ashley Cumberland presents her piece Timeline/Skyline, which in my opinion is one of the most interesting pieces in the exhibition. It consists of an enormous Manhattan skyline in which the reflection of the city traces an oblique line that touches on the manipulation of information and facts by the media and “official history.” In this skyline, the two World Trade Center towers do not follow the oblique line; instead, they trace a perpendicular line that crosses the composition. The perpendicular line of the two towers looks like a “PAUSE” sign allegorically referring to the kind of pause introduced into this country’s development with the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7. The piece ends in a triangle that looks like a “PLAY” button enclosing an optimistic message. “At the termination of the piece is a triangle as a PLAY button with the continuation of the heartbeat again, sending the message to continue on, but now with a conscience and educated frame of mind,” Cumberland says. Based on her 10-year investigation, the artist created a timeline of more than 20 pages of facts relating to the destruction of the towers in which the United States has been implicated. This timeline is included in this piece and causes us to question the veracity of official history.

Cumberland, who is also an architect, created a series of seven pieces entitled Architectural Studies in which she presents various plans for the towers on slabs of concrete and Venetian plaster showing the location of their support columns. This information was removed from the Internet when the 9/11 events took place, and it was not made known until very recently. Cumberland searched for it for several years, and upon finding that it was recently put back up on the Internet, she decided to perpetuate it in this series so that the viewer could have an idea of the towers’ foundation. The towers were bolstered by 59 support columns on each of four sides, as well as a core structure of even thicker columns. This information leads us to wonder how it is possible that the fire generated by the impact of an airplane could collapse a structure built on such a solid foundation.

Gino Tozzi, Bird Brain, 2011, images of bird strikes. All photos: Mariano Costa-Peuser.

For her part, artist Billie Grace Lynn has created an enormous composition using photos of the victims who lost their lives in the towers. Lenses (2011), made up of faces of the deceased, forms two enormous pupils that have a dramatic impact on the public conscience.

The artist Rachel Hughes was actively involved in aiding and rescuing the victims of 9/11. As a result of having been exposed to toxic dust and chemical contaminants, Hughes has suffered from serious health problems for the last 10 years. She has had to take numerous medications and nutritional supplements just in order to continue living. Her work Pause Towers (2011) is an enormous Plexiglas sculpture made up of hundreds of prescription bottles and medical packaging that represent only a fraction of what her body has ingested in the 10-year time period. This piece constitutes evidence of the personal tragedy that her infirmity implies. Hughes has worked actively to inform Americans of the effects suffered by WTC Syndrome victims. “‘PAUSE’ delves deep into the questions I face on a daily basis,” Hughes says. “Because of my illness, I have been forced to ‘pause’ and reflect on the questions surrounding 9/11.” Hughes’ testimonies have been assembled in the film 9/11 Dust and Deceit (2006) by Penny Little, which documents the opinions of environmental health experts, doctors and also the testimonies of thousands of firefighters, paramedics, volunteers and workers who were exposed to the toxic dust emitted by the towers in lower Manhattan, environmental damage that will last for years to come.

Rachel Hughes, Pause Towers, 2011, Plexiglass WTC911, medical prescription bottles, packages.

The artist Gino Tozzi, for his part, exhibited Bird Brain (2011). This piece made up of 9,200 images is the result of combining 200 photos, which Tozzi found on the Internet, of airplane fuselages damaged as a result of bird strikes. The images reproduce the hole that the airplane in turn left in the first tower that was hit. With this gesture, the artist causes us to question how an airplane could hit a structure like the towers and cause enough structural damage (according to the official version of the facts) to result in the collapse of both buildings. Tozzi also presents the sculpture No Step (2011), which consists of an original airplane wing similar to the one that struck the towers. He challenges the public to move the wing inside the exhibition hall in order to verify its lightness and fragility. No Step is situated next to a steel replica of one of the building’s exterior columns. Another of his works presented at this exhibition is a series of aluminum panels containing 2,998 crosses made from cut nails, one for each of those who died in the terrorist act.

This exhibition appears at a time when Americans start to reflect on the future that awaits them in a world controlled by major capital interests and by the financial institutions that dominate the economy and politics. Through art, “PAUSE” is a call to reflect on and delve into the unanswered questions surrounding the events of 9/11 and its devastating consequences for American reality. Cumberland summarizes the goal of this exhibition with these words: “What we wish to achieve with this exhibition is to create a new pacific movement, including art, music and film, that is not for a negative reason, nor in a violent way, but rather to educate and inform. People are calling this out in a discreet way. That’s the way that change can be made through the arts.”

“PAUSE” was on view until the end of November 2011. For more information contact LMNT 55 NW 36 St., 33127. Phone: 305 572 9007 / 1 877 525 LMNT / info@L-M-N-T.com