| WTC - WTF? | ||
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We
looked downtown from the top of the Empire State Building, we looked
across at New York City from the beach at Sandy Hook, we went to
Liberty Park in New Jersey and saw lower Manhattan right there,
so close, looking as though you could just touch it by reaching
out. My mind played a trick on me every time I saw that skyline:
I painted in the Twin Towers.
I know I'm not the only person who did this. Everyone wanted to tell us their 9/11 story, but no one wanted to listen to ours. Whilst the attack is a symbol to outsiders, I was surprised at the rawness I found, and realised that what happened is still traumatic and real for New Yorkers. For example, the towers are still there on subway street maps, like nothing ever happened. This creeped me the most because it was as though the WTC is still a real, functioning place in the city's information infrastructure. On the other side of town, the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadow Park, hosts a lovely display about the city's World's Fairs, you can go and look at the model of New York that was built for the Futurama exhibit at the '64 fair. Perfectly scaled, every house, office building and skyscraper is there, as well as some of the larger monuments. It's looking a little shabby and dusty these days, as does the curl of red white and blue ribbon that adorns the tiny, inches tall World Trade Centre. I guess no matter how tempted anyone was to remove the model after 9/11, no matter how much they wanted the map to be an accurate reflection of the city, no one could quite bring themselves to do it. It caused me to wonder what they'll do with the Twin Towers when the new Freedom Tower is finished. Meanwhile, the World Trade Centre is now at the centre of a souvenir trade that no one could ever have envisioned. I bought postcards, a miniature base metal model, but passed over the 3D plates, paperweights, endless videos and tastefully produced booklets. It's pretty much impossible to imagine a day when 9/11 mementoes no longer exist, I think there will always be a market for World Trade Centre nostalgia. I wonder if Mohammed Atta ever considered how his actions would impact on eBay. We got to the site a couple of days before the cornerstone was laid, in a ceremony symbolising the beginning of the monumental rebuild. Our timing meant that we saw the site at its most hole-like, after all the rubble had been cleared away, but before anything new got plonked there. It looked like a pure space. We wished that it could have remained like that, it would have given the ghosts and people a chance to stretch out and breathe. The land is too valuable to leave and the awful truth is that, for all the grief and pain and confusion, money is a more pressing concern than the souls of those poor people who died that day. There's a viewing wall at the site, you stand on a large, wide pavement and look at the hole through a metal mesh. An old geezer plays a flute, busking for change. His repertoire consists of wavering cornball tunes, Amazing Grace, maybe Feelings - Woah Woah Woah Feelings, I'm not sure. It's not long before it becomes very irritating, but the other tourists people seem to tolerate him happily. We were approached by a man flipping open a small photo album at us. He was trying to sell colour photographs of the disaster. We waved him away, annoyed, but I was secretly intrigued. He had a sorry face, by which I mean an expression that looked as though it was attempting to convey grief, pity, deference, yet it was also comically insincere. The mesh wall had a series of panels attached to it commemorating the Twin Towers and the events of 9/11. I was shocked by the inflammatory language that was used in the text. The World Trade Centre was described as something like: "Two shining towers, reaching up to the heavens...a symbol of our ingenuity...commanding glory...blah blah". Hmm. Later on, the people who died in the towers are described as "Heroes" who were "murdered." It's nauseating, as is the graffiti below: "Sadaam Husain(sic). He is a bad man." Back in Queens, outside the art museum sits the Unisphere, a gigantic, beautiful model of the world. The Unisphere has fantastic 1960s neutron trails running around it, the design is stunning. It was built for the 1964 World's Fair and its dedication reads: "Peace through understanding". It's a statement unfamiliar to most, but still as pertinent as ever. |
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