A picture of Osama Bin Laden made from photographs of people who died in the September 11 attacks has been displayed on the streets of New York by a British art student. Daphi Dotan, 27, from Plymouth College of Art and Design, stuck the 44 in by 66 in photo collage in New York’s Union Square for her final-year project and filmed the reactions of passers-by. She said the work, called Facing Terror, was inspired by the picture of the murderer Myra Hindley made from children’s handprints by the artist Marcus Harvey, but added that it was also a personal reaction to the September 11 tragedy.
"I felt like I had a strong need to interpret the terrorist attacks," said Dotan, who grew up in Israel and moved to Britain seven years ago. "For me, concrete statues or memorial gardens don’t mean anything. I wanted to bring it home that people died in the attacks, and show how much damage they [the terrorists] caused to the people who lost friends and family. I chose Union Square because it was the place where people who lost loved ones gathered after 9/11."
Passers-by caught on Dotan’s film seemed shocked that Bin Laden’s image was in the square, but their expressions visibly softened when they realised that it consisted of faces of the victims.The picture is made up of the images of 2,528 victims, which Dotan took a year to collect from memorial leaflets and internet sites. Bin Laden’s face was produced through the use of computer software. The image is currently in Plymouth for the university’s final year show, but Dotan hopes to take it back to New York and place it outside the United Nations building. |