Sculpture
Remembrance 911
- Description
- Mixed media and poured plaster sculpture titled Remembrance 911 (2001-2002) created by Christy Symington. The tall, jagged sculpture shape is reminiscent of the standing facade remnants of the Twin Towers rising from Ground Zero. Small green rectangles of Astroturf are embedded within the sculpture to represent the green spaces throughout the landscape of Manhattan. Glass wax is also applied, adding another architectural element to the urban landscape. The sculpture is composed of three parts that interconnect with one another.
- Historical Notes
- After living in the United States for four years, sculptor Christy Symington returned to London days before the September 11 terrorist attacks. Symington started a poured plaster sculpture in the following months without a clear creative vision of what it was meant to represent. She later realized that its jagged silhouette had been influenced by a 2001 newspaper clipping she kept in her studio, which had an image of the vertical, steel remnants of the Twin Towers at Ground Zero. She incorporated several patches of artificial grass into the piece to symbolize the healing power of nature and titled the work Remembrance 911.
Curator's Comment
Christy Symington identifies as an artist principally concerned with figurative and abstract sculptures noted for their innovative use of material-driven combinations. From 1997-2001, Symington attended the New York Studio School, participating in its exchange program with the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London in 1999. Previously, she had studied traditional figural sculpture and drawing in Paris at Les Ateliers Beaux-Arts Glacière and Montparnasse, and at the École des Beaux-Arts.
During the four years that she attended the New York Studio School on West 8th Street, Symington lived in the East Village. During this time, she met photographer and filmmaker Tontxi Vazquez, whom she married at City Hall in May 2001. Three days before 9/11, in pursuit of additional training in sculpture, she and Vazquez had flown to London to manage her enrollment the Byam Shaw School of Art. They were there when news arrived of the terror attacks in the United States and the inconceivable destruction of the Word Trade Center. She remembers the panic they experienced trying to reach his two New York City-based adult daughters. It took 20 hours before they learned that both were safe. The couple was nonetheless impacted by fallout from the attacks.
Like most New Yorkers, Symington had viewed the Twin Towers as ineradicable; they had also served as her reliable navigational aid. The notion of their abrupt, violent disappearance was deeply unsettling. Grieving their loss from afar, she consumed images of the devastated landmark delivered steadily through the mass media. In the months after the attacks, Symington found an outlet for her own displaced sorrow and connections to the World Trade Center when she turned to her craft as therapy. The result was the sculpture eventually titled Remembrance 911, although she was uncertain of where this project was headed at its outset or if the piece was a specific homage to the lost Towers. “As it was for so many, the media images did not process straight away, though now are very familiar. My head and heart were still in New York,” she later reflected. It took months for her to recognize that the emerging form had been spurred by a newspaper image depicting Ground Zero’s wreckage pinned to her studio wall.
During the four years that she attended the New York Studio School on West 8th Street, Symington lived in the East Village. During this time, she met photographer and filmmaker Tontxi Vazquez, whom she married at City Hall in May 2001. Three days before 9/11, in pursuit of additional training in sculpture, she and Vazquez had flown to London to manage her enrollment the Byam Shaw School of Art. They were there when news arrived of the terror attacks in the United States and the inconceivable destruction of the Word Trade Center. She remembers the panic they experienced trying to reach his two New York City-based adult daughters. It took 20 hours before they learned that both were safe. The couple was nonetheless impacted by fallout from the attacks.
Like most New Yorkers, Symington had viewed the Twin Towers as ineradicable; they had also served as her reliable navigational aid. The notion of their abrupt, violent disappearance was deeply unsettling. Grieving their loss from afar, she consumed images of the devastated landmark delivered steadily through the mass media. In the months after the attacks, Symington found an outlet for her own displaced sorrow and connections to the World Trade Center when she turned to her craft as therapy. The result was the sculpture eventually titled Remembrance 911, although she was uncertain of where this project was headed at its outset or if the piece was a specific homage to the lost Towers. “As it was for so many, the media images did not process straight away, though now are very familiar. My head and heart were still in New York,” she later reflected. It took months for her to recognize that the emerging form had been spurred by a newspaper image depicting Ground Zero’s wreckage pinned to her studio wall.
- Accession Number: C.2024.34.1
- Dimensions: 82 in X 24 in X 18 in
- Dimensions (Metric): 208.28 cm X 60.96 cm X 45.72 cm
- Source: Christy Symington
- Credit Line: Gift of Christy Symington MRSS
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