“Public art, especially when it is of monumental character, provides an immediate impact that, in my eyes, is derived from its democratic nature. Public art is free and accessible at all times to all people from all walks of life. When a monument extends beyond the telling of a past event, it has the power to influence and unite people in an immediate way that is both visceral and intellectual.  A public art, which carries a strong message, has the power to affect a collective norm. It may broaden people’s thinking, encourage them to accept the validity of different viewpoints, and consequentially, it may bring on meaningful societal changes".

Artist’s Statement, 2003

                                                9/11 MEMORIAL - A NATIONAL MONUMENT

Working on the 9/11 memorial for Montgomery County in Norristown, Pennsylvania has been a game changer in my perception of Memorials. I sculpted a pair of monumental hands rising high above a tilted column and placed in them a twisted burnt I-beam salvaged from the North tower of the WTC. The I-beam seemed human and vulnerable and the hands, rough and muscular. But they barely touched the wounded renmant that seemed so human when they very tenderly lifted it into the sky.

This tenderness was essential to the Memorial message. I was not interested in sculpting an aspect of the tragedy as it had happened. But as it may be remembered, years later. Through the prism of remembrance -- that has not yet have started -- I moved the tragedy from the recent past, forward: into the far future; a time, when a tragic event may lose its hard edges. As it softens, it bcomes a building-block of the shared history of the collective.

9/11 Memorial was included in the Library of Congress Archive on May 2, 2019 under the Control Number 2019689991.