NEW YORK-
The shock waves that radiated from the Sept. 11 attacks were both physical and cultural. A new exhibit opening at the Brooklyn Museum reflects that duality, with a show that examines the physical history of the land where the World Trade Center stood as well as how artists responded in the aftermath. "Looking Back From Ground Zero: Images From the Brooklyn Museum Collection" opens Aug. 30 and runs through Jan. 7.
Taken entirely from the museum's own holdings, the show opens with a giant photograph of the construction site that is currently ground zero. Inside the galleries, viewers get a glimpse of what the history of that area of lower Manhattan has been, and what it was like on that day in 2001. The show ends with a room dedicated to projects from artists reflecting on the tragedy.
"I thought it was fitting to recognize the five years that have gone past, and to stop and think about what happened because I think it's our duty to do that," said Marilyn Kushner, who curated the show along with fellow museum staffer Deirdre Lawrence.
The entire show is housed in galleries painted in blue and gray, to remind visitors of the bright color of the sky on Sept. 11 and to evoke the industrial color scheme of the towers.
For the first section, Kushner plumbed the museum's collection of images and other material to showcase the history of that bottom section of Manhattan, which had been a hub of commercial and economic activity for more than 200 years.
Visitors will see an engraving from 1861 that showed a view of the city from 1798; a print depicting the skyline in the mid-1930s; and an image of the buildings in the neighborhood that were razed by the project that become the World Trade Center complex.
The second section, set off by cutouts that evoke the towers through their pointy, skyscraper-looking shape, is about what life was like with the towers. There are many images of the iconic New York City skyline, as well as shots of the twin towers' distinctive outer walls.
"We wanted to sort of give an idea of how the buildings dominated the landscape," Kushner said.
The horror of the day itself and its aftermath takes up the third section in the show. There's an image, put onto a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, of the still smoldering site a few days after the attack. Another photo captures the weary face of a firefighter who worked on the recovery effort. A print on one wall features an image of The New York Times and its "Portraits of Grief" section.
The focus of the show shifts in the last gallery, dedicated to projects examining the cultural impact of the attacks. There's the comment book that visitors were asked to sign during a Brooklyn museum exhibition marking the first anniversary of the attacks; a ceramic tea bowl that contains a small amount of ashes from ground zero; a series of small books created by an artist looking at the effects of the Patriot Act.
Kushner said she wasn't trying to get visitors to come away with a specific point or mind-set.
"I don't want to try to get them to do anything," she said. "What I wanted to do was reflect back on what happened, reflect back on how I felt that day, the people that were lost that day, a part of the soul of the city that was lost."
The exhibit is the museum's way of marking a milestone anniversary, she said. "I wanted this to be what the Brooklyn Museum could offer as a remembrance of Sept. 11 and the trade center."
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Also opening this month:
–"Out of Time: Contemporary Art From the Collection," Museum of Modern Art, Aug. 30 through April 9. The pieces in this exhibit, featuring some recent acquisitions, focus on how people experience time.
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