Sharon Paz : Falling, 2002

I made the piece while in residence with the Lower Manhattan Culture Council, "new views" in DUMBO, looking on the new horizon line of Manhattan and dealing with trauma.

My interest was to explore the moment of falling to bring the psychological human side of the event, the moment between life and death. Falling is one of the basic fears of human but in the same time we dream to fly.

I found the images of people falling the most disturbing and wanted to deal with them, to overcome the fear, I felt the need to explore this moment, to bring out the reality within the memory that this event burns into our mind. I created the shadows of the images and placed them in a vertical line on the Jamaica Center for the Arts & Learning windows. I tried to bring the freedom of this horrible moment where in fact there was no choice for these people.

I felt the media concentrated in using the building or nationalism for memory and left the human side out of the event. The work shows another perspective about the issue, the human side that makes people confront the hard reality.

The public reaction to the work brings out questions about art's role in our society; I think it is a strong piece, but I didn't mean in any way for it to be offensive or insensitive, people react different, this was my way to confront the event.
I believe fear will not disappear if you will close your eyes.

Sharon Paz, September 2002