http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1630&dept_id=7736&newsid=11175960&PAG=461&rfi=9
Sculpture Mile sculptor awarded 9/11 memorial
By: LISA CARTER , Staff writer 03/25/2004
Photo by Barbara Douglas. The stylized frog titled "Wall Street Serenade" in the New Haven Savings Bank courtyard has been a favorite of visitors.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Ressler said he was "honored" to have been awarded the commission to memorialize the hundreds of Brooklyn victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks.
Town residents and visitors have come to know the work of New York artist Robert Ressler through his contributions to Madison's Sculpture Mile.
Visitors to the Stop & Shop plaza cannot miss Ressler's two-ton pressurized wood and steel "Binyamin," known locally as the "Butcher Block." Youngsters and adults still delight in his colorful "Wall Street Serenade" with its huge open-mouthed frog playing a squeeze-box accordion.
Ressler's work will gain new heights of notoriety with a recent commission by the Brooklyn Council on the Arts and a new group called "Brooklyn Remembers," to execute the borough's official Sept. 11 memorial in a sculpture entitled "Beacon."
Now in production, "Beacon" will be a slender, 25-foot-high bronze sculpture depicting a 19th century firefighter's trumpet set atop a base, with a beacon of light shining skyward. On the base of the trumpet will read the dedication, "Brooklyn Remembers: For Those Lost on September 11, 2001."
The trumpet, known as a "speaking trumpet" was a device once used by volunteer fire companies in New York City to transmit warnings to the crowd and orders to the firefighters while alerting neighbors of a crisis in progress.
"In designing a site-specific work to memorialize the event and the loss of lives suffered by communities in Brooklyn, I sought a simple, singular image to convey this grief," said Ressler. "In the 1800s in New York City, firefighters and emergency workers were all volunteers from the community. At that time, a speaking trumpet, the central image of this sculpture, conveyed orders and warnings. It was for this theme of community involvement and communication that I selected this image, as well as the elegance of the form."
The memorial will be located at the 69th Street Pier in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, a busy site, where locals and visitors stroll, jog and enjoy the shoreline vistas. The location was selected by the project because it was the vantage point where many local residents witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center and is within view of the Statue of Liberty, Ressler said.
Ressler, on his web site, wrote that the memorial "will blend into the views of the shoreline, evoking a lighthouse and the direction and relief it provides."
The sculptor is a Brooklyn native, who spends three quarters of his time in Brooklyn and another quarter in rural Bomoseen, Vt. He has been sculpting since attending the Pratt Institute in New York City. After a year at graduate school, Ressler began doing large-scale outdoor sculptures that "fit into the environment." Those works led to others in public parks and other public venues.
"That's the direction I've gone primarily after that," said Ressler.
Ressler said he did not know about the memorial competition until a friend told him and suggested he apply.
Ressler initially submitted a resume and slides of some of his works, but did not hear back from the council "for a very long time." Once he learned he was one of five finalists, he developed a proposal, which was displayed in several bank lobbies with four other proposals for public review over a period of approximately six weeks.
"People would put their comments on what they thought about the various works of the finalists. Then I had to do a presentation to the board, and I was selected," Ressler said.
In keeping with the local theme, Ressler will use Brooklyn foundry, Bedi-Makky, to cast the sculpture. The foundry is known for the production of the famed statue of six Marines planting the American flag at Iwo Jima, located in Arlington, Va.
The total cost of the project is $115,000, which includes Ressler's stipend, the bronze casting and the installation; Brooklyn Remembers has almost raised that amount. If all goes as planned, said Ressler, the memorial will be ready by the end of summer.
Before that, Ressler plans to squeeze in a visit to Madison April 3, where he will join several other Sculpture Mile artists, in an interactive presentation sponsored by the Hollycroft Foundation called Sculptor Night Alive.
The event will be held at the Polson School auditorium at 7:30 p.m. and is free to students with a suggested $5 donation for adults.
--
The Design-L list for art and architecture, since 1992...
To subscribe, send mailto:design-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To signoff, send mailto:design-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Visit archives: http://lists.psu.edu/archives/design-l.html
Sculpture Mile sculptor awarded 9/11 memorial
By: LISA CARTER , Staff writer 03/25/2004
Photo by Barbara Douglas. The stylized frog titled "Wall Street Serenade" in the New Haven Savings Bank courtyard has been a favorite of visitors.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Ressler said he was "honored" to have been awarded the commission to memorialize the hundreds of Brooklyn victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks.
Town residents and visitors have come to know the work of New York artist Robert Ressler through his contributions to Madison's Sculpture Mile.
Visitors to the Stop & Shop plaza cannot miss Ressler's two-ton pressurized wood and steel "Binyamin," known locally as the "Butcher Block." Youngsters and adults still delight in his colorful "Wall Street Serenade" with its huge open-mouthed frog playing a squeeze-box accordion.
Ressler's work will gain new heights of notoriety with a recent commission by the Brooklyn Council on the Arts and a new group called "Brooklyn Remembers," to execute the borough's official Sept. 11 memorial in a sculpture entitled "Beacon."
Now in production, "Beacon" will be a slender, 25-foot-high bronze sculpture depicting a 19th century firefighter's trumpet set atop a base, with a beacon of light shining skyward. On the base of the trumpet will read the dedication, "Brooklyn Remembers: For Those Lost on September 11, 2001."
The trumpet, known as a "speaking trumpet" was a device once used by volunteer fire companies in New York City to transmit warnings to the crowd and orders to the firefighters while alerting neighbors of a crisis in progress.
"In designing a site-specific work to memorialize the event and the loss of lives suffered by communities in Brooklyn, I sought a simple, singular image to convey this grief," said Ressler. "In the 1800s in New York City, firefighters and emergency workers were all volunteers from the community. At that time, a speaking trumpet, the central image of this sculpture, conveyed orders and warnings. It was for this theme of community involvement and communication that I selected this image, as well as the elegance of the form."
The memorial will be located at the 69th Street Pier in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, a busy site, where locals and visitors stroll, jog and enjoy the shoreline vistas. The location was selected by the project because it was the vantage point where many local residents witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center and is within view of the Statue of Liberty, Ressler said.
Ressler, on his web site, wrote that the memorial "will blend into the views of the shoreline, evoking a lighthouse and the direction and relief it provides."
The sculptor is a Brooklyn native, who spends three quarters of his time in Brooklyn and another quarter in rural Bomoseen, Vt. He has been sculpting since attending the Pratt Institute in New York City. After a year at graduate school, Ressler began doing large-scale outdoor sculptures that "fit into the environment." Those works led to others in public parks and other public venues.
"That's the direction I've gone primarily after that," said Ressler.
Ressler said he did not know about the memorial competition until a friend told him and suggested he apply.
Ressler initially submitted a resume and slides of some of his works, but did not hear back from the council "for a very long time." Once he learned he was one of five finalists, he developed a proposal, which was displayed in several bank lobbies with four other proposals for public review over a period of approximately six weeks.
"People would put their comments on what they thought about the various works of the finalists. Then I had to do a presentation to the board, and I was selected," Ressler said.
In keeping with the local theme, Ressler will use Brooklyn foundry, Bedi-Makky, to cast the sculpture. The foundry is known for the production of the famed statue of six Marines planting the American flag at Iwo Jima, located in Arlington, Va.
The total cost of the project is $115,000, which includes Ressler's stipend, the bronze casting and the installation; Brooklyn Remembers has almost raised that amount. If all goes as planned, said Ressler, the memorial will be ready by the end of summer.
Before that, Ressler plans to squeeze in a visit to Madison April 3, where he will join several other Sculpture Mile artists, in an interactive presentation sponsored by the Hollycroft Foundation called Sculptor Night Alive.
The event will be held at the Polson School auditorium at 7:30 p.m. and is free to students with a suggested $5 donation for adults.
--
The Design-L list for art and architecture, since 1992...
To subscribe, send mailto:design-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To signoff, send mailto:design-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Visit archives: http://lists.psu.edu/archives/design-l.html