Indart & Hyman

Our Story

Both known for their prolific and ongoing work in creating and documenting art made in response to 9/11/01, Indart & Hyman’s commemorative poster offers a window into the use of iconography and imagery employed across the culture made in response to that world-changing and tragic day.

The poster honors & remembers New York City Firefighters, New York City & Port Authority Police Officers, Emergency Services & First Responders, all civilians who perished in the attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, & the Shanksville, PA crash site, all Ground Zero Recovery Workers & volunteers, grieving family members, and those who have died from 9/11-related illnesses.

The Collaboration

A record of art making, memorializing, commemoration, documenting, and never forgetting

In the days, weeks, months, and years after September 11th, ordinary places became sites of memorialization, commemoration, and tributes to both individuals and the nation itself. Seen in the form of flags, memorial displays, and other creative impulses on: Firehouse doors, highway overpasses, automobiles & large trucks, fences, houses, barns, front lawns, handball courts, bales of hay, and even the human body.

Since the day of the attacks on September 11th, 2001, with an eye on and interest in memorialization, collective memory, and contemporary folk art, photographer Jonathan C. Hyman has been documenting these public commemorative expressions across a large part of the country. In the aftermath of the attacks Hyman discovered Indart’s artistry while riding his bicycle on a 5-boro ride across New York City, tracking Indart down through a phone number he noticed in the bottom corner of a mural. The two have collaborated over the years in various endeavors and events that commemorate 9/11 and various individuals. Through their work together they present and interpret 9/11 commemorative language in contemporary popular culture.

Firehouse door employs classic 9/11-related iconography as identified by photographer, Jonathan C. Hyman: Flag, Eagle, Towers

Double firehouse doors, Staten Island, New York

A street-side mural honoring New York City Firefighter Michael Paul Ragusa

Ordinary Places became sites of commemoration.

Firehouse doors, highway overpasses, automobiles and large trucks, fences, houses, barns, front lawns, handball courts, bales of hay, and even the human body were employed as spaces of art and public expression. Over more than two decades Joe Indart participated in public by painting large-scale outdoor murals on buildings.

Twenty-five years on, this impulse to memorialize and remember endures. This 25th anniversary poster presents Indart's use of many oft-used icons and imagery into a single printed record. Those who lived through it, and also a generation with no memory of the day can still read and understand what the country endured and Indart and Hyman have refused to set down.

Mural of soaring eagles above mountains and a lake — 25 Years
of commemoration

Who it honors

New York City Firefighters, New York City and Port Authority Police Officers, Emergency Services and First Responders, all civilians who perished at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Shanksville, PA crash site, Ground Zero recovery workers and volunteers, grieving family members, and those who have died from 9/11-related illnesses.

The Poster

A Shared Anniversary

While they have worked together and separately, over the past 2+ decades, Hyman and Indart felt the 25-year anniversary would be a good time to mark their shared & individual interests in the memorial artwork and public expression surrounding the history-altering 9/11 events as well as the victims of the attacks who will never be forgotten.

This commemorative poster does not attempt to summarize what was lost. Rather, it offers a visual means to memorialize and interpret the attacks through understandable iconography and imagery frequently found in popular culture and the pathos invoked: Mount Rushmore, the World Trade Center towers, soaring eagles, the Brooklyn and Verrazano Narrows Bridges, the Statue of Liberty, scrolls identifying the deceased, and indeed, the always-present American flag, and more.

The poster, like the public memorial artwork Indart and Hyman created and photographed, documents the past and offers it to those who come after.

A hand-painted memorial tribute that includes the towers, flags, and firefighters

Meet the Creators

An artist and a photographer, working across two and a half decades of commemorative art.

Joe Indart

Artist

Joe Indart is a muralist with the sure hand of a fine art draftsman and the playful sensibility of a cartoonist. He is known for his persistent memorial practice and the creation of over 50 large-scale murals dedicated to memory of individual community members and public servants who perished on 9/11/2001. As seen in Jonathan C. Hyman’s documentation of his historic work, Indart’s artistry, inclusive of his outdoor commercial work for businesses and New York City firehouse doors, is the life blood of both commemoration.

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Jonathan C. Hyman

Photographer

Jonathan C. Hyman is a documentary photographer and photojournalist. His decades-long comprehensive 9/11 photo project records the vernacular artwork, public memorial displays, and public speech that transformed the landscape in the aftermath of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. Hyman is known for his work in the genres of Americana, vernacular art, public expression, and “things by the side of the road” in contemporary American popular culture.

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View the 25th anniversary commemorative poster

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