Maquette
- Description
- Trinity Root maquette sculpture by Steve Tobin. The maquette was modeled after the stump and roots of the sycamore tree that was in the yard at St. Paul's Chapel.
- Historical Notes
- The large sycamore tree in the yard behind St. Paul's Chapel protected the building from major damage on 9/11 but was uprooted in the process. A cast of the root system was later made into a large sculpture by artist Steve Tobin. This maquette is a smaller, working model that helped to guide the creation of the larger bronze memorial.
Curator's Comment
On September 11, 2001, a 70-year-old sycamore tree in the yard behind St. Paul’s Chapel shielded the historic sanctuary from falling debris caused by the collapses of the nearby Twin Towers. While the tree spared the building from destruction, its roots were torn from the earth. St. Paul’s, an affiliate of Trinity Wall Street Church, served as a 24-hour respite center for first responders at Ground Zero during the rescue and recovery period.
After reading about the tree’s sacrifice and its necessary removal from the church-yard, artist Steve Tobin contacted officials at Trinity Wall Street with a proposal to cast the tree’s excavated root system in bronze. A specialist in the creation of monumental bronzes of natural forms, Tobin hoped that this effort could serve as a metaphor for the sacrifice made by those who responded on September 11 as well as the deep well of compassion that fueled thousands of volunteers to help in the aftermath. The idea resonated with Trinity’s leadership and Tobin was granted custody of the surviving stump. He cast it more than 200 times and invested more than 20,000 hours in creating the finished sculpture. He used soil and dust from the chapel’s courtyard to create the maquette’s deep red patina.
The massive finished sculpture, measuring 13 feet in height with a 15-foot width and a more extensive tangle of descending roots, was installed on the four year anniversary of the attacks inside the courtyard of Trinity Church on Broadway and Wall Street, several blocks south of its original setting. For years, it served as the only official art memorial near Ground Zero. In 2016, the church administration elected to relocate Tobin’s Trinity Root from this prominent outdoor setting to a rural conference center in Connecticut. The decision stirred public controversy, in part over the project’s permanence as understood by the artist at the time he embarked on the original, labor-intensive casting process.
After reading about the tree’s sacrifice and its necessary removal from the church-yard, artist Steve Tobin contacted officials at Trinity Wall Street with a proposal to cast the tree’s excavated root system in bronze. A specialist in the creation of monumental bronzes of natural forms, Tobin hoped that this effort could serve as a metaphor for the sacrifice made by those who responded on September 11 as well as the deep well of compassion that fueled thousands of volunteers to help in the aftermath. The idea resonated with Trinity’s leadership and Tobin was granted custody of the surviving stump. He cast it more than 200 times and invested more than 20,000 hours in creating the finished sculpture. He used soil and dust from the chapel’s courtyard to create the maquette’s deep red patina.
The massive finished sculpture, measuring 13 feet in height with a 15-foot width and a more extensive tangle of descending roots, was installed on the four year anniversary of the attacks inside the courtyard of Trinity Church on Broadway and Wall Street, several blocks south of its original setting. For years, it served as the only official art memorial near Ground Zero. In 2016, the church administration elected to relocate Tobin’s Trinity Root from this prominent outdoor setting to a rural conference center in Connecticut. The decision stirred public controversy, in part over the project’s permanence as understood by the artist at the time he embarked on the original, labor-intensive casting process.
- Accession Number: C.2016.156.1
- Dimensions: 6.6 ft X 6 ft X 6 ft
- Dimensions (Metric): 16.764 cm X 15.24 cm X 15.24 cm
- Source: Steve Tobin
- Credit Line: Gift of Steve Tobin, American artist
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