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Monday, January 29, 2007
a day in the life: sleepwalking from home to ground zero
see all of my photo's of Doug Aitken's 'sleepwalkers' on the comitini.com flickr photo blog
There are a few stories I've want to share this month that got away until now; and maybe that's good as it gives me a moment to step back to form a larger context in which to place them. They all took place on January 18th and involved things which I've blogged about recently. It was more of a personal day for me, but there is a common thread running through these three stories of buildings as the focal point of larger personal and public dynamics. On that day; I sold the home I grew up in, saw Doug Aitken's 'sleepwalkers' at MoMA, and heard a radical vision for the redevelopment of ground-zero.
awakening at home
I'd started the day with just one firm appointment; to attend a closing transferring title of the house in which I grew up, to its new owners. My thanksgiving for the memories post about it had finally reached its conclusion. It was the successful end of a long process in which I played the roles of son, broker, FSBO and client. It is likely that I'll write about it in more detail in the weeks to come, but for the moment let me say that it was an experience which taught me a lot about myself, my family and my profession. The closing took place on at my attorney's office on Madison Avenue near 54th Street, on a chilly and rainy afternoon. Doug Aitken's sleepwalkers had just opened the night before. I'd written about it a week earlier 'sleepwalking on 53rd street' (recently updated with links to a couple of reviews). We left the closing around dusk, and after seeing that Mom got to her train, I decided to walk over to MoMA and take in the exhibit.
sleepwalking over to MoMA
the sculpture garden at MoMA 01.18.2007
I'd anticipated the possibility of attending and brought my trusty little Nikon with me. The weather was not the most inviting, but it helped create moody, atmospheric shots through the drizzle and mist. The photos have been posted to a 'sleepwalkers' set on flickr (see my photos anytime by clicking the 'peter's photos' link near the animated photo badge, at the bottom of the left column). The installation was very slick and ran flawlessly. Sleepwalkers is a 15 minute, non-linear film being projected onto multiple facades of MoMA. The interaction of the building's site, with the films, the viewers, the formal references to art as contained inside, and factors like weather and ambient noise, created a vivid, real, yet somewhat cold, austere, and highly calculated experience. A comment on very nature of modernism, art, architecture, electronic media, and the parallel social interactions that exist only in the moment, on the stage that we call New York City. It's a thought provoking work about the urban context we live in, and certainly worth a visit one evening, if you haven't been to see it already.
see my photo's of 'sleepwalkers'
to downtown, dreaming about ground-zero
ground-zero at night 01.18.2007
I let sleepwalkers surround me for about an hour. Then headed downtown to the 52nd floor of Seven World Trade Center to hear architect Rafael Viñoly speak that evening. He was part of the THINK team, who's proposal came in second place to Daniel Liebskind's plan for the redevelopment of ground zero. This was the kickoff to the 'Third Thursdays' lecture series. As a downtown resident, and and an occasional observer of the redevelopment process, I was interested in hearing this talk and took the opportunity to capture a couple of night shots from the 52nd floor. Mr. Viñoly spoke to a packed house about the project competition as chronicled from his point of view in the book "THINK New York: A Ground Zero Diary"
Mr. Viñoly acknowledged that it's tough for him to be critical of the current plan without being accused of "sour grapes". But it did not stop him from attempting to re-open a public discourse on the matter, or placing the blame for the mis-management surrounding the entire process, squarely on the shoulders of former Gov. Pataki. Of course, one could not escape the irony of making the radical proposal from inside the only building actually erected on the site designed by David Childs of SOM, the architect of the Freedom tower. The venue and the large pit of ground zero visible below, simultaneously expressed the reality of the current state of affairs. I might tend to agree with him that more public arts and cultural institutions would make a far greater statement about who we are, than the current plan to build what amounts to an over-sized office complex surrounding the memorial. The Gothamist covered the talk, complete with the 'bootlegged' image below, shot from one of the screens on either side of the lectern. Mr. Viñoly's office to date has not responded to further requests for information regarding his proposals from that evening.
It was a fascinating and exhausting day. I walked home, up Greenwich Street to Tribeca, and went to sleep that night thinking about the day and and feeling a little bit more awakened. I had experienced the city as a binding force of my family's history; the social and architectural stage on which we play out millions of simultaneous social interactions; the hard reality of 9-11 with the surrounding politics, creative struggles and high aspirations that form the foundation and future of New York City.
