Erection date: 17/3/2015
{On oblong steel plaque:}
Since 9/11 – answering the question:
‘Since 9/11’ by Miya Ando
Commissioned by Since 9/11, an educational charity teaching students about the events, causes and consequences of 9/11, so that by living together in peace, harmony and tolerance such events can never happen again.
Created using steel columns from the World Trade Centre recovered from Ground Zero in New York City following the terrorist attacks on 11th September 2001.
WTC steel donated to London by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
This artwork has been made possible by the support and generosity of Lord Stanley Fink, Harvey and Allison McGrath, Peter Rosengard, Lev Bukhman, Michael Aukett Architects, Skidmore Owings & Merill, Mace Group, Carey Group plc, AW Lifting Ltd, City Lifting Ltd, Bell, Pottinger, DP9, Gia Equation, Lee Warren Fabrication & Design Ltd, McGrath Bros (Waste Control) Ltd, MDM Props, Willerby Landscapes Ltd, Tophire Ltd, Spade Oak, S. Walsh & Son Ltd, Bouygues E & S Infrastructure UK Ltd, and Zurich Insurance plc, with special thanks: London Legacy Development Corporation.
www.since911.com
{On 4 circular plaques, left to right:}
9/11
On the 11th of September 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists flew hijacked aircraft into the North and South towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth hijacked plane, headed toward Washington DC, crashed in Pennsylvania, as the passengers on board tried to overcome their hijackers. Through the actions of 19 hijackers, 2,977 people were killed, with victims from more than 90 countries. 67 came from the UK.
The Artwork
This artwork, titled ‘Since 9/11’ was created using steel form the World Trade Centre donated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Artist Miya Ando transformed this into a powerful symbol of the events, causes and their consequences, creating a place to directly confront the impact of those attacks and to reflect on how they have shaped our lives.
Education Programme
This artwork was created as part of the Education Programme of SINCE 9/11, a UK charity. Our mission is to help teachers and young people understand the events, causes and consequences of 9/11 – we offer teaching resources and guidance developed by the UCL Institute of Education, as well as school visits and workshops delivered directly to students.
Why at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park?
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralymic Games were a powerful symbol of hope, peace and tolerance – the same values represented by SINCE 9/11. Today the Park receives visitors from all over the world and is situated in the heart of London’s most diverse and dynamic communities, making it the artwork’s natural home.
These five, verbose, repetitive, inconsistent, self-regarding, plaques are laid into the ground on the south side of the sculpture - you can glimpse them in our photo. But for us, more evocative by far is the one word, 'SAVE', etched on one of the metal girders that make up the monument.
Site: 9/11 memorial - Olympic Park (1 memorial)
E20, Olympic Park
These girders from the Twin Towers wreckage were given by the Port Authority of New York to cities around the world for memorial projects. We’ve found others in Baltimore, Maryland and in Kennewick, Washington. NorthJersey has mapped the items and says "Of the more than 2,600 pieces of steel and other items distributed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, nearly 270 reside in New Jersey. The rest are scattered around the globe, as far as Beijing; Pompeii, Italy; London, Berlin; Dungarvan, Ireland; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and several locations in Canada. There's one at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and one at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Another resides at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington."
The London sculpture was intended to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and to be installed in Potters Field, next to City Hall. But local residents considered the location and style of the installation inappropriate pointing out that the sculpture draws attention to violence and is not visually a peaceful object (they have a point). Some British relatives of those who died in the attacks also expressed dislike of the monument.
Early designs had the sculpture set into a reflective pool and having a “redemptive panel" of reflective material. In the graphics this panel looks to us like a giant sheet of computer printout. Neither of these features were included in the actual sculpture.
The monument was unveiled in Battersea Park on 5 September 2011 but after a month it was removed to a warehouse/farmyard (depending on source). Then in March 2015 it was unveiled here, in an out-the-way corner of the Olympic Park, near a car-park. Not easy to find and at one stage we thought this photo, through a temporary constructor's grill, might be the best picture we were going to get, but we kept walking and eventually got there.
