International Center of Photography
Mikey Flowers 9/11. Ashes to Ashes, Dust to DNA
Kevin Clarke and Mikey Flowers 9/11
On the morning of September 11, 2001, a florist and
volunteer Emergency Medical Technician named Mikey
Flowers grabbed his digital camera and drove the few
blocks from his store to the World Trade Center after
the first plane hit the north tower. That day he
helped people who escaped the towers, tended to the
injured, and then ran for his life when the south
tower collapsed. When he was able he took pictures of
the chaotic scene. The images that Flowers took
became the basis of a collaboration with the artist
Kevin Clarke, whose studio was also near the WTC.
Dust to DNA: Kevin Clarke and Mikey Flowers 9/11, the
result of their endeavor, will be shown for the first
time at the International Center of Photography from
June 28 through September 1, 2002. It is the third
exhibition in the series Imaging the Future: The
Intersection of Science, Technology, and Photography
and is curated by Carol Squiers.
Since 1987, Clarke has been making unique portraits
combining photographic images and his subjects DNA
sequences. His usual method is to get to know the
person and then to spend weeks or even months looking
for an object or scene in which he recognizes the
individual. He then photographs it, digitally
manipulates the color and image, and overlays it with
the subject's genetic code, which is sequenced by a
laboratory from blood donated by the subject.
For this collaboration, Clarke used Flowers images of
9/11 and its aftermath for portraits of people who
survived the attacks or who were involved in the
rescue effort. A view of smoke billowing from the
ruins behind a group of firefighters is overlaid with
the DNA sequence of 13-year-old Ty Fujimora, who was
evacuated from a school near the towers; another of
the smoldering remains is paired with the genetic code
of firefighter Dennis Grady; a third, which shows the
south tower soon after it was hit, is covered with
Flowers DNA code. Among the other subjects
represented in the project are Port Authority police
officer Tom Kennedy, Police Detective Roger Parrino,
Sr., and rescue volunteers Amy Wallin and Tony B. The
resulting pieces are poignant tributes to the people
who lost their lives and to those who tried to find
survivors. A selection of Mikey Flowers photographs
will also be shown.
A publication by Kevin Clarke, Mikey Flowers 9/11,
Ashes to Ashes, Dust to DNA (2002), will accompany the
exhibition.
Kevin Clarke was born in New York in 1953 and studied
with Hans Haacke at The Cooper Union, where he
received a B.F.A. in sculpture in 1976. His work has
been widely exhibited in the U.S. and abroad.
Mikey Flowers was born in Brooklyn in 1958. He has
been a florist since 1982 and an EMT since 1995.
