“Windows on the World” Medium: Paper & cardboard 12.5”W x 20”H x 30”D.
Windows on the world is about a change in perspective. I want the viewer to see the new towers from underground, a perspective that wasn’t possible before the towers fell. This shift in perspective represents the seismic dismantling of the way we, as Americans, saw the world before the towers fell. Gone was our assumption of safety, our untouchable hubris.
In the summer of 2001, I was a design intern for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in the North Tower. I got to know that building and the neighborhood the ordinary way you do when you're there every day; favorite lunch spots, eating outside by the fountain between the towers on nice days, or being in the 44th floor cafeteria and noticing the subtle sway of the building on a windy day. My coworkers were kind and supportive, and I really enjoyed my time learning how a creative department is run.
By early September, I was back at school starting my senior year at the School of Visual Arts. On September 10th, a group of us went out after our first week of classes, on Bleecker Street, not far from the towers. Walking home that night I took a photo of them. Even though I was well on my way to becoming a jaded New Yorker, I was still in awe of those buildings and I like that my inner tourist came out at that moment. The photo is inside a missing Motorola RAZR that I hope to reclaim one day.
The next morning I was getting ready to go to class in the Flatiron district. I ended up in front of a TV instead. I watched former coworkers walk out of that building with their clothes torn and covered in ash. I later learned one of them didn't make it out… she was in an elevator.
The weeks after were hard to sort through in a way that never fully resolves. I moved on, the way everyone eventually does, but September 11th has never stopped holding weight for me.
Twenty-five years later, the perspective shift still holds true.
