Ellsworth Kelly's collage for Ground Zero, submitted in 2003
Being awakened by the heaviness before dawn today, I sense that I am not the only one still waiting for somewhere to go today.
"On October 19, 2001, I wrote a letter to you (that I never sent) in response to an article in The New York Times which discussed the controversy of what was to be planned for the `Ground Zero' space, asking artists and others for their opinions. (Two artists, Joel Shapiro and John Baldessari urged that no building be erected at the site, and the architect Tadao Ando made a similar proposition.)
"On October 19, 2001, I wrote a letter to you (that I never sent) in response to an article in The New York Times which discussed the controversy of what was to be planned for the `Ground Zero' space, asking artists and others for their opinions. (Two artists, Joel Shapiro and John Baldessari urged that no building be erected at the site, and the architect Tadao Ando made a similar proposition.)
At that time, my idea for the World Trade Center site was a large green mound of grass. When I saw the aerial photograph of the site on the cover of the Aug. 31 Arts & Leisure section of the Times, I was excited to see the site from this vantage point. I was inspired to make a collage of my idea for the space, which I am sending you.
I feel strongly that what is needed is a 'visual experience,' not additional buildings, a museum, a list of names or proposals for a freedom monument. (These are) distractions from a spiritual vision for the site: a vision for the future."
-Ellsworth Kelly to the Times' architecture critic, Herbert Muschamp
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