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In the period leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre, 25 artists were taking part in the World Views and Studio Scape artist residencies on the 91st floor of the North Tower. Some narrowly escaped death and they all lost a fellow artist, Michael Richards. Contemporary artist, Sanford Biggers who'd taken part in a previous Twin Tower residency, explores how this tragic date in contemporary history influenced the work of Michael Richard's contemporaries, including two British artists from the Twin Towers residency.

Michael Richards was an African American sculptor of Jamaican and Costa Rican origin. On the night of the 10th of September he was in his 'studio in the sky' on the 91st floor of the World Trade Centre's North Tower. The following morning while he was getting ready to go to his day job in Harlem a plane hit his floor.

Aviation, flight and escape were central themes of Michael's work, gesturing towards both repression and reprieve from social injustices and the simultaneous possibilities of uplift and downfall, often in the context of the historical and ongoing oppression of black people. The night before 9/11 Michael watched Monday night football in his studio with fellow artist Jeff Konigsberg. After the game he spent the night finishing off a sculpture. Some say Michael's work prophesised his death. Michael's work often centred around the theme of flight and one of his sculptures, honouring Tuskegee Airman, was cast from his body and was pierced by planes flying into him.

After 9/11 some of the artists felt their work became frivolous and lost focus. Years later several of the artists returned to their work to explore their emotional response to 9/11. But can art speak of tragedy and loss as effectively as it can of beauty? One of the most famous horror-based works is Picasso's Guernica which was inspired by the destruction of the eponymous town in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. It was painted close to the event but in the modern era it’s rare for artists to pick up a subject and attempt to describe the horror of conflict and suffering.

Late at night on September 10, 2001, another Twin Tower artist-in-residence, Monika Bravo, packed a videotape she had recorded over the course of several hours that evening and said goodnight to sculptor Michael Richards. By the end of the following day, the Twin Towers had collapsed. Grief-stricken, Monika turned to her art and edited her videotaped footage of thunderclouds, lightening and rain running like down the windows of the Twin Towers, in honour of Michael.

After 9/11, Vanessa Lawrence, an artist from Manchester, felt like the luckiest person alive. "I remember the morning of 9/11 very clearly, I couldn't wait to get up. I was painting sunrise over the New York skyline and had done so well the day before, I couldn't wait to get back to work. I was in my studio in the Twin Towers for 6am. The light was so amazing - it really was a beautiful Manhattan day - that I just didn't want to stop painting." At 8.30am Vanessa tore herself away and nipped down to the lobby to get a drink. "As I came back up I remember the elevator doors opening on the 91st floor. I literally put one foot out of the door and - bam - the whole building shook and I was blown across the corridor." Trapped at the top of the North Tower (the first to be hit) she had to climb down 1,729 fire escape steps before the building collapsed.

In 2018 Vanessa switched from landscape painting to start work with Morrell's Forge - an Ayrshire blacksmith. Her first piece dealt with what happened on 9/11. Running across the road as debris fell, one of her flip flops came off and was left amidst the rubble. She says that image of the flip-flop poking out of the tower's rubble has stayed with her ever since and it inspired her first metal work piece. "This piece is not about the physical shoe but about a part of me that was left behind that day."

Producer Kate Bissell
Presenter Sanford Biggers
Research Anna Miles

With thanks to Alex Fialho and Melissa Levin, Co-Curators of the retrospective Michael Richards: Are You Down? at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Photo courtesy of Carolyn Swiszcz