The Jumper

Anyone who has been reading this blog might remember when I talked about modern art. Well, once again, an artist has done something completely different, and it has gotten him in trouble. Mr. Skarbakka's decency has been called into question, he apparently has received death threats already, and he's not done. Now, I mentioned before that modern art is really not about the piece, but about the story that explains the piece. Mr. Skarbakka (whose piece is called, ironically, "Life Goes On") is jumping off of a building and taking pictures to try and figure out what the people in the World Trade Center buildings were thinking before they jumped.
To me, this sounds more like a psychological experiment instead of an art project, but the key to modern art, one artist told me, is to push the boundaries of what makes people feel safe. Back in 2002, not long after the city started to settle down, an art student at NYU decided to try a different kind of art project. He (I always heard it was a he, so if it was, in fact, a she, I apologize) placed black boxes at Subway stops. They were simply labeled, "FEAR," in big letters. People saw these boxes and panicked. Apparently, if I read and remember the story correctly, he placed a small camera inside each box, and the art of the piece came from the people's reactions to this box. At the time, it was declared that this piece was tasteless, wrong, and hurtful to the dead. However, years later, it is very popular. The site where the images were on the internet has been closed down recently, but if I ever find another site with the images, I will post it.
Back to the matter at hand, however. Right now everyone thinks that Skarbakka is insane and tasteless. Though I understand his art, I don't really think of it as art. However, this is no worse than the "Voodoo Mona Lisa" or the "Mother and Child" painting made out of elephant crap. Those are considered art pieces regardless of how the general public feels.
The bottom line is this: you should not judge Mr. Skarbakka by the way he achieves his artistic pieces, but by the pieces themselves. Look back over history for examples. The German and Jewish artists who worked out their feelings from the Holocaust by putting them down on paper. Do we condemn an artist because he or she drew or took pictures from places people were murdered? How else can some people achieve closure? What about the photographers who won Pulitzer Prizes for their photos in war or even during 9/11? Should we revoke their prizes, because they took photos of a tragedy?
I cannot give you a definitive answer, but I can tell you that in my opinion I don't think that Mr. Skarbakka is really doing anything wrong. I may not really understand modern art, nor may alot of people, but as long as some people get it, then the artist should be allowed to continue.