2002.06.25 13:18
Re: WTC Excavation Panorama
John wrote:
We were in the area yesterday looking for studio space with an intention to get in on the only NYC action that counts in avant-garde and putrid architecture, er, real estate.
Once we get set up with a view overlooking the sacred site, we'll be issuing a manifesto per week, tear-stained and lurid, so set your spam-eliminator on high alert.
Steve asks:
John, how long do you anticipate the whole 'exploitation' will take (seriously)? I imagine work at the WTC site will last several years. I'm also wondering how long it will take for the 'hole' to be filled and more or less covered (although there will still be much building activity underneath and above). It will be interesting to see how wider (ie, pieces in the press, etc.) 'perception' of the site changes as the site gets filled.
Kind of ironic that those visiting the site now often say there is nothing to see, when in fact they are seeing things that haven't been seen in years.
I'm reminded of a very nice aerial photo of lower Manhattan when the towers were almost complete that appeared in Life magazine (probably sometime 1970 or 71 or 72). I have the pages, but I used them within one of a series (a dozen I think) of artworks (1993) that 'reenacted' Duchamp's The Large Glass (The Bride Striped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even). In The Large Glass the lower section represents the male (sex appetite) while the upper section represents the female (sex appetite). In the one where I utilized the Life magazine WTC Towers photo, I placed it alongside an image of the (in)famous Space Shuttle toilet (that didn't always work properly)--these were in the lower section depicting erections and beyond. The top section has an actual but cloud-like female nude. Once the images were in place (acrylicly transferred onto mylar), then the 'cracks' of The Large Glass were pen plotted onto the mylar.
John, you use the word manifesto to describe the forthcoming 'exploitation.' Do you see this project as perhaps a 'reenactment' of Delirious New York? (Remember I do admire reenactment.)
A week or so ago R and I were talking a little about Delirious New York. We remembered how the original cover was an image of the Empire State Building in bed with the Chrysler Building. Last Saturday night I remembered a line from the poem "I Balls" (which is an integral part of Hey, Art Picasso, How's Your Brother Dick?) that reads: "If sex isn't something to talk about you can always think of the Empire State Building in the Holland Tunnel..." Upon (an almost 20 years later reflection) I think that line is very likely, albeit subconsciously, related to the cover of Delirious New York, and making that connection now is what prompted me to think of the Dick Manifestos.
Koolhass has over the last couple of years discussed manifestos, mostly in relation to Learning from Las Vegas. He concludes that architecture manifestos are no longer written, that it is all about urbanism now. I wonder if this is true.
manifesto 1 obscure : DEMONSTRATION, EVIDENCE 2 : a public declaration of intentions, motives, or views : a public statement of policy or opinion
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02062601.db The Manifestos
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