Pictured above: “New Light” by Joe Walles depicts a building eerily similar to the World Trade Center.
Courtesy of Joe Walles
By Lily Cannon
Where were you when it happened?
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Twin Towers, not many students here on campus are able to answer that question.
Yet every artist, and witness of the tragedy, who contributed to the Morean Arts Center’s “Rise Up: A Plea to Unite” exhibit had their own personal snapshot of the event.
“You don’t forget,” artist and photojournalism veteran Joe Walles said.
That is the resounding sentiment from most of the St. Petersburg residents who created work for the show; an expression of shock and grief, and even more importantly, an urge to remember, and as the exhibit is aptly named, “Rise up.”
Just as the art center itself promotes, viewers and contributors alike must find ways “to push through our collective uncertainty, divisiveness and grief.”
However, the show isn’t solely dedicated to the mourning of 9/11; it serves as a call to unite as a country and, like collage artist Susan Harbison affirms, as a “home and family.”
Harbison describes her piece of remembrance as “pictorial with a bit of surrealism,” using newspaper photographs, masks and cardboard to emphasize a chance for “rebirth” after tragedy.
Whether it be from September 2001, or from the pandemic, Harbison wants viewers to heal. When asked what students should take away from Freedom to Choose, Harbison hopes viewers build a foundation through “listening and kindness.”
John Wilcox, a local photographer and collage artist, dedicated a collection entirely to the question “where were you when it happened?” He shares Harbison’s desire for harmony in the St. Petersburg community, describing his creative journey post-9/11 as a “meditation” on the news coverage and art created in its wake.
His work fixates on the intimate perspective of witnesses and offers a large white sheet for viewers to jot down when and where they were in that pivotal moment.
His meditation led him to recycle newspaper articles into bold multimedia art pieces, a practice that he continues in this year’s show. He advises young artists at USF “to absorb as much as you can.”
Joe Walles has a similar love for the ties between history and art, summarized in his unique perspective: “visual arts people have a tendency to remember,” especially with one of the most heavily recorded terrorist attacks in history.
Previously working as a photojournalist, Walles understands how integral creative work can be to commemorating the past. He urges young viewers to remember and learn from similarly important moments, “it’s the same old story.”
It’s an age-old lesson he epitomized when creating his submission, a photograph that fixates on a beacon of light forming around a single tower eerily similar to the World Trade Center.
On the other hand, “Instinctual, passionate and emotional” painter John Archibald is more interested in those most affected by 9/11. He reminds viewers of the class disparity of those who died in the attack, while “the higher level [workers] came in late.”
He processes these difficult emotions by creating “art by instinct,” a form of painting where he simply picks up his materials and paints without a clear plan. In “Dream Towers”, Archibald muses over the two figures that appeared randomly on the sides of the building, which could be read as angels or even survivors.
Chief curator of the show Amanda Cooper “didn’t just want to focus on the sadness” by commemorating this event. She, like the other participating artists, wants to inspire a new harmony within the St. Petersburg community.
Cooper encourages young artists to participate in future exhibits and is looking forward to a new generation of artists.
Lily Cannon is a freshman English major at USF St. Petersburg.
