Apologies, 2002 Hand-cast glycerin soap, glass jars, vinyl
letter texts
Installed in and between the WFC Courtyard restrooms
For her site-specific installation Apologies, Anne Beffel is distributing
hundreds of free handmade glycerin soap bars embedded with the phrase
"I’m sorry." Mounted alongside the large glass jars used to
dispense the soaps are stories that describe apologies offered, withheld
or refused. The narratives, with contexts that range from war to homelessness,
draw from true stories Beffel has collected over the past four years, including
those shared with her by the public during her five-month New Views residency.
By locating her project in a secluded area of the WFC, Beffel hopes to create
space for personal reflection on the complex questions of contrition and
forgiveness; how we as individuals, communities, and nations negotiate our
differences through the social contract of apology. She envisions the bars
of soap as touchstones for those who choose to explore these issues on both
personal and collective levels.
Glory F Flora, 2002 Artificial foliage, planters
Installed in 1 WFC gatehouse, lobby level
For her installation Glory F Flora, Jane Benson placed subtly modified
artificial trees and plants throughout the World Financial Center complex.
Intentionally subverting the purpose of fake greenery, Benson cut synthetic
leaves into unnatural shapes (triangles, rectangles and squares) creating
jagged sci-fi canopies -- artificial trees that are unabashedly fake. The
plants are thus twice removed from their original context and are literally
reinvented, highlighting the dynamic between nature and artifice. Casually
installed beside public walkways and escalators, the trees and plants of Glory
F Flora seem to poke fun at the austere, symmetrical architecture of
the WFC’s interior and provide a comic interruption to the daily flow
of pedestrian traffic, their unique beauty revealed to curious passersby.
These mass-produced objects, now infused with a strong sense of character,
indicate Benson’s wish to defy behavioral conventions, reminding us
that individuals should have the freedom to be who they are in a world of
flux, alteration and change.
All works Untitled, 2002 Fabric, found objects, hardware
Various dimensions
Installed in 1 WFC gatehouse, street level
Curtis Cuffie’s work resonates with the longstanding tradition of rural
African-American southern yard-art shows where throwaway items are recontextualized
and reconfigured. In Cuffie’s work metaphorical assemblages and decorated
altars are turned urban, and freestanding vaguely anthropomorphic sculptures
and site-specific installations reveal multiple narratives and deep spiritual
effervescence. Cuffie sited his vibrant and ultimately ephemeral works outdoors,
most notably on the streets of the East Village and SoHo starting in the
late 1980s. For this exhibition Cuffie turned to Battery Park City and the
WFC for materials and inspiration
– he created the six free-standing sculptures installed in 1 WFC gatehouse
while in residence. Cuffie died unexpectedly before beginning a large-scale
installation on lampposts in a garden adjacent to 2 WFC. The pieces exhibited
here, as with all of Cuffie’s work, address the uniqueness and resilience
of the human spirit. In Cuffie’s hands, tenuous, improvised constructions
of fabric, metal, and found objects transcend their humble origins and coalesce
into poignant visual poems.
To learn more about Curtis Cuffie and his work, visit the WFC Courtyard Gallery.
Open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 1-4pm.
Lend Me a Memory, 2002 Clay sculptures, metal shelving units, agreement
forms, books
Installed in the WFC Courtyard, lobby level adjacent to the
newsstand
During the course of his residency Charles Goldman invited the public to "lend" him
inconsequential, intimate, or obscure memories. A contractual form was filled
out by both parties and a receipt was issued. Now part of Goldman’s
memory bank, these loaned stories, phrases or descriptions also served as
inspiration for 120 small clay sculptures, which are displayed on gray industrial
shelving for this exhibition (and will be returned to the lenders at the
close of the show). The project is inspired by the 10-year anniversary of
a serious head injury Goldman believes damaged his memory function and the
countless memories recently lost in the World Trade Center. With its light-hearted
tone and diversity of voices, Lend Me a Memory runs counter to the
tradition of singular heroic memorials in Lower Manhattan and commemorates
the randomness of human experience.
Portraits, 2002 Various materials, standard surveillance
camera mounts
Installed throughout the WFC Courtyard, lobby and street levels,
and the Winter Garden’s north balcony
For her site-specific installation, Elke Lehmann has installed a number of
simulated surveillance cameras. Visibly non-functional and playfully constructed
from a variety of materials --Plexiglas, cardboard, shopping bags, wax, mirrors
-- each of Lehmann’s sculptures is a unique "portrait"
of this standard device commonly found in public spaces. The personalized
nature of these sculptural objects is a marked contrast to the industrial
high-tech appearance of typical surveillance equipment. Installed above public
walkways and gathering points, Lehmann’s handcrafted, whimsical replicas
share space with the existing operational surveillance system in the World
Financial Center. The installation draws attention to issues of privacy and
questions the anonymity and omnipresence of modern surveillance while humorously
diffusing the new sense of discomfort and anxiety many have come to experience
in public spaces.
Viewing Platform and Waterline, 2002 Videos screened on plasma monitors in World
Financial Center
Bridge, 2002 Sound installation in the pedestrian bridge
between 1 and 2 WFC
Pia Lindman’s video and sound work address three ubiquitous realms of
Lower Manhattan: Battery Park City, the World Trade Center site, and the
harbor - three disparate atmospheres that captured her attention throughout
her New Views residency. For Waterline she submerged her camera in
Battery Park City’s North Cove Yacht Harbor and, from the surface of
the water as if peeking from underneath it, recorded the New York skyline. Viewing
Platform, shot from the 19th floor of 1 WFC, is a video focused on the
structure built for visitors to overlook the World Trade Center site. Shown
on the WFC Complex’s plasma screens, both Viewing Platform and Waterline investigate
a new relationship to New York’s built environment and our ways of observing
and visually coming to grips with the recent emotional and psychological
references in Lower Manhattan. Bridge is installed on the pedestrian
bridge between the two southern WFC towers, a space from which one can see
both the World Trade Center site and the harbor. The sound piece allows these
two vantage points to merge and attempts to blur the physical distance between
them. At times soft and ambient, at others hard and pounding, the sound integrates
the two most predominant elements of the area: the tranquility of the waves
and open sea and the disruptive harshness of the reconstruction process.
Audio technology consultant: Marko Tandefelt
Speaker system provided by GENELEC
New York Ascendant: Here and Now, 2002 Plasma screen, DVD, Plexiglas and plywood
base
Installed in WFC Winter Garden, lobby level
This animated digital drawing traces the 370-year transformation of Lower
Manhattan into an international center of finance. Generated from a computer
model, the drawing slowly rotates and loops, revealing layers of historical
city maps and three-dimensional projections of office buildings, subway routes,
and landforms. The model also gives time a dimension: structures are organized
on time planes according to the year of their construction (scaled at 1 year
= 100 feet). A map is both a reference to a place and a statement in itself. New
York Ascendant: Here and Now departs from the stable representation projected
by typical static city maps. It both locates and dislocates one in time and
space, chronicling and wondering at the complex history and diverse architectural
expression at the narrow tip of Manhattan Island.
The computer model was initially developed
with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts, the
support of the Skyscraper Museum, and modeling assistants Akiko
Hattori and Lucy Wong. Additional support came from the Department
of Architecture, Parsons School of Design, and modeling assistants
John Cadenhead and Erwin Hirsan.
In Andrea Ray’s audio & visual installation, an image of a grassy
mound covers the bottom edge of five large windows that overlook the former
World Trade Center site. Viewers are invited to sit and look at the image
and the cityscape beyond while they listen to a recorded narrative. The story,
which follows the healing process of an unnamed protagonist, is interspersed
with post-traumatic coping techniques and descriptions of a horizon, leveled
earth, a pit, and a mound. Over the course of the audio the character moves
from a state of unease to calm; from trauma to a semblance of normalcy.
The title Filter references the psychological notion of "screening"
often used as a coping mechanism. The title is also meant to evoke a physical
process of filling, sieving, and moving land, with specific reference to
the hilly landscape of Manhattan that was leveled by early settlers using
pick and axe and the terrain below the former World Trade Center that has
been sifted and moved to the Fresh Kills landfill.
Irrational Intervals, 2002 Video projection, DVD, cabinet
Installed in 1 WFC gatehouse, lobby level
Villar’s project, Irrational Intervals, dwells upon those rare
moments when, in the fast-moving life of the city, the body is temporarily
at rest. The work depicts the common practice of "smoke breaks"
– short pauses in the workday taken to smoke cigarettes – and focuses
on the correlation between these breaks and the empty pockets in architecture
sought by smokers to avoid pedestrian traffic. Outside the work site and
apart from the continuous flow of the street, the smoker occupies a zone
of indifference. While focusing on minute negotiations of social space in
the urban environment, Villar sees these moments of relative seclusion in
the intervals of a cityscape as opportunities to reflect upon much larger
conditions and our space in the world.
From January 2002 until the spring of this year, windows throughout the WFC
towers overlooking the World Trade Center site were covered with opaque film.
As part of Villar’s project, one of the panels in WFC 1 was recovered
and used as a screen on which to project this video.
