WTC memorial sculptures (1)
the office space of the WTC Memorial 1 exists right
off the large cubic volume and visitors around its
periphery can see into scenery when looking through
the facade screen of the original WTC building. to
look into the office space is to see reenactments
of the life and lives that inhabited the buildings.
the work of sculptor George Segal could inform such
an environment through full scale plaster vignettes
of life in the towers, including the people, places,
and everyday events which created the environment as
it was experienced and as it is remembered - such an
approach to documenting the mundanity of cubicles in
an office or janitors at work or restaurant hostess'
or cultural symbolism as people in such a place who
talk on their cellphone, rendered fully dimensional
in plaster - would then be juxtaposed to the stories
that unfolded in this same environment as it changed.
the several stories of office and skyscraper space
occupied by all walks of life would be represented
in a figurative yet still modern and abstract way,
all the differences of professions, titles, class,
purposes, meaning would become monotone in plaster.
equalized. a field of common experience, inhabited.
then with the transformation of 9/11 in these short
sketches, the entirety of this reality would change.
statues would start to head for the stairs and the
elevators. common movements, dramatic motion occurs
as the stairs become an exit, and the statues give
way to other emotions such as pain, distress, fear,
courage, bravery, valor, love, tragedy, transcendence.
staircases set aside for this sculptural portrayal,
reenactment of memories of survivors the details by
which the sculptors are to decide what is cast into
place, scenes unfold as do stories, which can be
encountered by visitors as they seek perspectives
on these events by their proximity and relationships.
entire staircases can be filled with statues, which
cannot be transversed by visitors, while others can
be navigated around statues, going up while plaster,
wood, metal, and stone statues run down the stairs.
going up with the firefighters, now in bronze, while
most others go down if they are indeed still able to.
a firefighter stops to administer oxygen to someone
struggling while they rest on the stairs, as people
go down, talking on cellphones, consoling those who
are alone, seeking to comprehend unbelievable events,
unable to function, to move, the motion not stopping.
visitors would be able to walk among these statues,
at other times, not able to pass or occupy spaces
because there is no room to move, the density now
overtaking the ability to ahead of the next events.
smoke, lighting, details of the original buildings
brought out in sculptural relief to remember and
share in the experiences enough to keep it real,
alive, to witness the tragedy and values and to
seek intimate understanding of the events of 9/11.
the unique perceptions art, architecture, and design
are critical and vital to a living WTC Memorial Park.
formulaic non-figurative abstract modern expressionism
does not convey the necessary experiences so to learn
from events, not hide them, to question the context,
to identify with the tragedy, to mourn and to honor
and to rebuild upon the triumph of the human spirit,
to seek life, peace, and knowledge and to foster and
cultivate awareness so as to not repeat these events.
the 9/11 memorial should speak clearly without words.
it should speak in its every detail to the events, to
honor and remember and to transcend limits of death.
it should not be a compromise- it should be, without
question, what is right, good, true, and necessary.
this WTC Memorial Park and its twin memorials should
be compared to the blank nothingness of the current
'master plan' and its inhuman corporate landscape of
concrete, glass, and steel, its statements of freedom,
liberty, heroism, its memorialization- to compare the
two plans, approaches, value systems as to what the
stated versus actual goals of redevelopment efforts.
one is centered on business interests, the other is
centered on 9/11 - there is no clearer distinction:
it is the most significant foreign policy decision
that could be made today -- if architecture changes,
absolutely everything in the culture can also change.
and for the better, by design, insight, and ingenuity.
all of which the ideology of modernism, holding back
ideas in the schools, organizations, and professions,
will not allow to happy within its own bureaucracies.
human individuals can only make such things possible.
to change the machinery of automated decision making,
to ask questions, question assumptions, and to seek
better solutions and approaches, ... in the name of
freedom, liberty, peace, justice, and democracy.
until then an authoritarian, totalitarian, fascistic-
even, monument to the past seeks to control the future
by way of the applied ideology of architecture which
has created the chaos of the present, through design.
citizen architects and a public master plan for a
WTC Memorial Park would change the reality of not
only the site, but also the populace as physical
truth would be manifest in experiences, movement
of minds towards greater understanding, awareness,
appreciation, true solidarity of values, meaning,
at the levels and in ways possible and appropriate.
the "master plan" of "Ground Zero" is an anachronism,
it declares defeat to questions without even having
to consider them- it erases the reality for abstract
meaningless corporate aesthetics, antithesis of life.
a true memorial to 9/11 would be self-evident to all,
as it respects peoples right to self-interpretation,
self-determination, and a shared philosophy of life.
the WTC Memorial Park is the embodiment of this idea.
(1) "The problem is one of adaptation, in which the realities of our life are in question... Society is filled with a violent desire for something which it may obtain or not. Everything lies in that : everything depends on the effort made and the attention paid to these alarming symptoms. Architecture or Revolution. Revolution can be avoided." - Le Corbusier
pp.268-269, Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier, translated from the French by Frederick Etchells, Holt, Rinehard and Winston, Books that Matter (paperback), First published in the USA in 1960 by Praeger Publishers, Inc., NY; First published in England in 1927 by Architectural Press, London.
the .US needs its architectural revolution, an evolution
in the ways of building ideas, so to make new things now
possible that remain stuck in the past, unequipped for
today's new realities which require, as a duty, for each
citizen to question how they can improve situations now
in extreme imbalance - and architecture can lead the way.
yet the hegemonic rule of architectural ideologues and
their institutional blockades are standing in the way...
'Architecture or Revolution?
Revolution can be avoided.
Architecture cannot.' (1)
- anonymous, Y2K
nor can a new generation of architects and their ideas,
(which is now some 500 to 1000 years in the making...)
* example of work by George Segal
http://hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/gallery/segal.html
George and Helen Segal Foundation
http://segalfoundation.org/main.shtml
George Segal: American Still Life (documentary film)
http://www.pbs.org/georgesegal/index/
'GEORGE SEGAL: AMERICAN STILL LIFE chronicles the life and work of the internationally acclaimed, New Jersey-based sculptor, whose trademark life-size plaster casts can be seen in major museums and in public spaces throughout the country, from the FDR Memorial in Washington to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. Segal created his art out of life's seemingly uneventful moments--waiting for a bus, drinking coffee in a diner, listening to the radio--but his sculptures are more than just frozen moments. They remind us what it is to be human. "Daily life has a reputation for being banal, uninteresting, boring somehow. It strikes me that daily life is baffling, mysterious, and unfathomable."'