In recognition of last year's terrorist attacks, the UB Anderson Gallery is presenting a "Day of Remembrance," which features a series of 21 collages inspired by Sept. 11, composed entirely of mixed media.
Materials included in the exhibit are debris from Ground Zero, newspaper clippings, "caution" tape and sand that Niagara Falls-based artist Terri Katz Kasimov found with her son Corey in Manhattan days after last year's attacks. In "Day of Remembrance," the Anderson Gallery will also include an all-day screening on the acclaimed HBO documentary, "In Memoriam: New York City 9/11/01," produced by UB alumnus Brad Grey. The gallery is open today from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For Terri Katz Kasimov, Sept. 11 is the day she and her son "absolutely lucked out." Last year, Corey, a biotech analyst, was expecting his mother to fly in that day when he saw the planes crash into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center from his office nearby at 1 Liberty Plaza. Meanwhile, Kasimov was in a Jet Blue flight, circling several thousand feet in the air over Manhattan, before it was rerouted to the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport.
Kasimov simply remembers feeling "delirious," while she and her son made desperate but unsuccessful attempts to call each other.
"I didn't know if I would still have a son," Kasimov remembers thinking while on the plane. This coincided with her other fear that there would be no place to land. She recounts that the pilot, who was "absolutely terrific," was much more composed than the other passengers, who were screaming, "Oh my God!" as they viewed the events unfolding on television.
The torment didn't end after the plane finally landed. "Everyone was hysterical," Kasimov said. Hoping that Corey was alive, she said, " I knew that I was going to be blessed or my life was going to be over."
Kasimov was blessed. Once they were able to communicate, Terri could not believe that she was hearing the voice of her son on the other end of the phone, and could not deny an "overwhelming feeling of relief, and at the same time, terrible grief."
Corey, who had only moved to New York City eight months earlier, described the events as "surreal." When the second plane hit the South Tower, Corey remembers seeing a fireball before his office windows blew out. After he escaped the building, Corey headed north and did not look back until he reached Washington Square Park, just as the first building fell.
For Kasimov, the way to get through the traumatic event was by funneling her emotions through art, or "attacking the paper," as she put it. A painter since childhood, Kasimov graduated from UB with a master's in painting. She has a wide variety of experience, including exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Art Center. Kasimov has also designed cover art for novels, including Raymond Federman, a former professor in the English department.
When Kasimov tried to tackle Sept. 11, the inspiration for her art initially the stemmed from personal experiences. But she gradually drew more and more from stories she heard from other individuals in real life testimonies and media coverage on television. A unique piece in the series is a collage that includes painted marks "that symbolizes a person that is dead or missing."
Kasimov said she wants her artwork to be more than a personal statement; she would like other individuals affected by the tragedy to pay tribute to the heroes of Sept. 11. She also hopes that they will add to the community response collage that will be displayed at the Downtown Fire Hall on Court Street once it is completed.
Those interested in contributing may bring photos, articles, poems and other items to the Anderson Gallery, from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14.
