New exhibits in NYC for 9/11 anniversary

World Today

Works by Artist Ejay Weiss, who witnessed the crumbling of the towers from his studio nearby and gathered ash from the site mixing it with black acrylic for most of his series.

Two years ago the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City opened its doors for the first time. With photographs, video, audio and remnants of the events the museum gives visitors a better understanding of what happened on that horrific day. This year, on the 15th anniversary of 9/11, the museum will exhibit, for the first time ever, works of art that could trigger an emotional response that is even more intense. CCTV America’s Karina Huber gave us this report.

Work on this series of paintings began just three days after the attacks. Artist Ejay Weiss witnessed the crumbling of the towers from his studio nearby and gathered ash from the site mixing it with black acrylic for most of the series.

“The ash was in the air for nine months. We breathed it. You could smell – it was a crematorium,” said Weiss. “And people would silently say if you ran into them on the street, there’s that smell again. It became part of the fabric of the existence of New York.”

Artist Manju Shandler created this work that consists of almost 3,000 individual paintings – one for each victim of the attacks. It’s called “Gesture.”

“Gesture” by Manju Shandler

“Gesture” by Manju Shandler

“A gesture in art terms like a gestural drawing is a drawing that’s rendered very quickly and it’s meant to have emotion and motion to it and I think all of those things work for this artwork,” said Shandler.

The exhibit consists of 13 works of art in mediums ranging from painting to sculpture to video created by 13 New York based artists – some of whom lost family members or friends in the attacks, others who witnessed the attacks from their studios nearby.

Christopher Saucedo lost his brother – a firefighter – that day. His artistic response was to create images out of linen pulp on handmade paper.

Christopher Saucedo w/ Karina Huber in front of his work.

Christopher Saucedo w/ Karina Huber in front of his work.

The museum’s permanent exhibit provides a mainly documentary approach to the tragedy. Museum director Alice Greenwald says having an artistic interpretation allows for a more emotional response.

“All of us were struggling 15 years ago to make sense of what we were seeing. We couldn’t believe what was in front of us,” Greenwals said. “We couldn’t make sense of it and artists are the people in our world who try to render what we all see.”

The exhibit titled “Rendering the Unthinkable” will be on display at the 9/11 Memorial Museum until January 2018.