Ever since Japanese American architect Minoru Yamasaki’s World Trade Center opened in 1972, art has played an important part in the building. From 1997 to 2001 a residency program in the North Tower, provided artists 24-hour access to empty office space on the 91st and 92nd floors. The extraordinary setting inspired participants to create work, among them Yale School of Art graduate John Pilson in 2000, the last year before the residency program came to an abrupt halt when hijacked Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.

Pilson’s photographs pre-residency, taken while working night shifts for a Manhattan investment bank from 1994 to 2000, made the WTC a logical environment to explore the office further. During his residency, Pilson produced a two-channel video Above the Grid, a meditation on the hidden unconscious of the workplace. Using the corporate backdrop as a set for suited businessmen to behave absurdly, Pilson reveals an imaginary after-hours existence in the skyscraper. Above the Grid was included in the Venice Biennale and P.S. 1’s Greater New York the following year. Together with the black and white photo series, Above the Grid memorializes the lost life in these majestic office towers.

A larger photo is in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art.