Kerry Skarbakka is an American artist and an assistant professor of photography at
Oregon State University
Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...
.
[ He is most known for his photographed images of himself apparently falling. One of his well-known images shows him apparently about to fall from the ]Vance Creek Bridge
The Vance Creek Bridge is an arch bridge in the Satsop Hills of Mason County, Washington that was built for a logging railroad owned by the Simpson Logging Company in 1929. At in height, it is the second-highest railroad arch in the United Stat ...
in Washington State timber country.[
]
Early life and education
Kerry Skarbakka was born in Duluth, Minnesota. His family embraced Christian fundamentalism
Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British and ...
when Skarbakka was a young boy. They moved to a farming community in Tennessee. At age 7, Skarbakka found that he could speak in tongues. The ''Chicago Reader
The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...
'' states that he "witnessed faith healings at tent revivals and in storefronts and basements. People he knew told of encounters with the devil." This early experience informed his career as an artist.
Skarbakka received his BA in studio art with an emphasis in sculpture from the University of Washington School of Art. In 2003 he received an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928https://about.colum.edu/effectiveness/pdf/spring-2021-student-profile.pdf students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergra ...
.
Work
One of Skarbakka's first major exhibitions occurred at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago as part of their "New Artists/New Work" series. The photography shown depicted "anxiety-provoking, large-format photographs" showing the artist falling to near certain death. In 2005, one of Skarbakka's "falling" works was featured on the cover of ''Aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An opt ...
'' with an accompanying essay by Wayne Koestenbaum
Wayne Koestenbaum (born 1958) is an American artist, poet, and cultural critic. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University and is a 1994 Whiting Award recipi ...
.
In 2005, one of his "falling man" performances sparked controversy when some claimed it was a recreation of some of the tragic jumpers from the World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
during September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
. The artist said that the images were inspired both by the "death of his mother and the events of September 11."
Honors and awards
In 2005 Skarbakka received a Creative Capital grant for his project ''Fluid''.
References
The falling man: the art of Kerry Skarbakka - in pictures
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''
Kerry Skarbakka : the Falling Photographer
''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
''
Further reading
* SECAC Abstracts from the Annual Meeting in Charleston, West Virginia October 17–20, 2007
*
External links
*
Living people
American photographers
Oregon State University faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)
University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design alumni
{{Oregon-bio-stub