Shadows over Manhattan
New York not only lost thousands of lives and two skyscrapers on September 11. It lost the presence of those people and those buildings, that was normally felt throughout Downtown Manhattan. New York lost their shadows. You see someone coming when you notice their shadow around the corner. You know someones there, when you see a shadow through the door. The shadow of a friend can be comforting. In a wide semi-circle around the World Trade Center the light is different now. It doesnt change suddenly at fixed times when the sun hides behind the two tall towers. It doesnt light up again when the sun has passed them.
In some myths, a man loses his shadow and doesnt die. But his is a life hardly worth living. Without a shadow, he has no real presence. Without a shadow, he is not of this earth. A shadow is proof of existence.
When something horrible happens, they say it casts a shadow over the world. Or if it was anticipated, they say that its shadow preceded it. Shadows can be signs of life and of death. But regardless of good or evil, a shadow means memory.
Our proposal symbolizes the memorial value of shadows. It suggests re-casting the shadows of the Twin Towers at the times they collapsed. Carefully, or should one say lovingly, tracing the outlines over everything they touched at that moment. Or would have touched, had they been intact. The site itself will be filled again. New buildings, different people, will move their shadows over Manhattan. But these ones, like the hands of a clock that stopped when life around it stopped, will remain still. A twin shadow reminding us of good and evil.
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