Dan Witz WTC 9/11 Shrines

September 11, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Features, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

To mark the 10th Anniversary of the events that took place in NYC on September 11, 2001 we asked Street Artist Dan Witz to share with us his images of a series of shrines that he installed in New York during the summer of 2002. It seems appropriate that Street Art paid tribute and facilitated the public mourning and remembrance of those we lost; All manner of artists took to the streets at that time – and it never really stopped. We are thankful for the time and the effort of the many talents, mostly anonymous, who claimed the streets as their own and who buoyed us during those days. And we are thankful to Dan for sharing with us his work here.

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Dan Witz talks about his “WTC Shrines” –

“Starting at Ground Zero, following sight lines of the World Trade Center drawn in a star pattern on my map, I installed about 40 of these on the bases of light poles. At the time I was thinking a lot about art objects’ possible usefulness in the real world. For me paintings have often functioned as secular shrines—as visual instigators to reverie.

The week before September 11th I was up in the Bronx at a housing project photographing the shrine neighbors left at the doorstep of a murdered 9 year old girl (balloons, flowers, stuffed animals, family photos). I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do exactly, it was just my way of sketching. Then the planes hit and the city parks filled with thousands of candles and flowers and other offerings. Again, I went to take photographs, not knowing what I actually wanted, just on an instinct. At the time I used a large format camera, the old style with the hood and long bellows. Every time I put the hood on and focused the ground glass, I got an unmistakably eerie feeling from all those candles—it was bizarre and chilling, and definitely paranormal. I’ll never forget it”

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Dan Witz. Thompson Street, NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn. (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. 23rd Street and 6th Ave. NYC (photo © Dan Witz)

from a publicly posted poem entitled

Don’t Look for Me Anymore
(Alicia Vasquez)

don’t look for me anymore
it’s late and you are tired
your feet ache standing atop the ruins of our twins
day after day searching for a trace of me
your eyes are burning red
your hands cut bleeding sifting through rock
and your back crooked from endless hours of labor…

it’s my turn, I’m worried about you
watching as you sift through the ruins of what was
day after day in the soot and the rain
I ache in knowing you suffer my death

rest in knowing that my blood lies in the cracks and crevices
of these great lands I loved so much…

don’t look for me anymore
hold my children as I would
hold my brothers and sisters for me
since I can’t bring them up with the same
love you gave me
and I’ll rest assured
you’re watching my children

don’t look for me anymore
go home and rest…

Signed A. Vasquez, found on 9/14/01 on the “Wailing Wall” at Grand Central Station