A review by the Daily News of exhibits at the Drawing Center which is slated to part of the controversial Freedom Center complex at Ground Zero shows several very political exhibits including artistic depictions of Abu Ghraib torture and a conspiracy chart linking George Bush to Osama Bin Laden.
We of course do not object to the Drawing Center (map) having these exhibits any place else. We just think it points once again to the ill conceived concept of the Freedom Center complex which architectually will dominate the memorial — with bigger footprints than either of the memorial voids and coming within a tree of each of the voids.
The chickens are all now coming home to roost on the initial bad decision when Governor Pataki assigned an artist — Dan Libeskind — to come up with the master plan for the site rather than having historians and engineers decide the site’s fate.
The Daily News reporters looking through the Design Center catalog since September 2001 came up with these gems:
+ “A Glimpse of What Life in a Free Country Can Be Like,” by Amy Wilson, was displayed in fall 2004. It depicts a man with a hood on his head and electrodes bearing the word “Liberty” connected to his arms, the iconic image of Abu Ghraib stands above a field peopled with dancing skeletons.
+ “Global Networks: George W. Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens,” by the late Mark Lombardi, was displayed in fall 2003. The line line drawing uses arrows and circles to link politicians, oil tycoons and international terrorists. Then-Texas Gov. George Bush and ex-President George H.W. Bush are linked to Bin Laden, indirectly, via another Saudi sheik and a business baron.
The front page of the Daily News proclaims
911 Outrage
DRAW THE
LINE, NOW
Gov. Pataki is allowing a museum that exhibits
anti-american art to display its works at Ground Zero.
This is a disgrace, and THE NEWS demands action.
The article proclaims:
VIOLATED…AGAIN
Kin slap art center’s 9/11 pieces
The head in the photos says
IS THIS WHAT WE NEED AT GROUND ZERO?
The editorial in the same paper proclaims
Get the picture, Governor?
In the be careful what you write category, it quotes the Design Center’s Co-Director writing in the beginning of a exhibit two years ago:
Need more evidence? Try this on, Governor. The following wackobabble, co-authored by The Drawing Center’s executive director, is from an introduction to an exhibit staged two years ago:
“Mobilizing the nation by portraying it as a guardian of family and home, the U.S. government has embarked on a campaign to protect the innocent through the benevolent ‘liberation’ of ‘evil’ nations.”
And: “Governmental crusades, such as the recent ‘Patriot Act,’ that impinge on our private lives through increased surveillance underscore that the threat lies within as well.”
The editorial concludes:
We need no further information to reach a conclusion regarding The Drawing Center. The works it displays are already a matter of record. You’ve made a mistake, Governor. Fix it, please. Show these people the door.
My Commentary
This completes a sweep of New York newspapers attacking the Ground Zero plans. The Daily News had markedly held back.
We have fought against the structure for two years now for the reasons that are now coming to light and also because it crowds the memorial. It may be inevitable that the solution to the situation is to turn the building into the 911 Museum. That would be more politically palatable but unfortunately it still would remain a badly placed building. The space should be park land. Most people probably would prefer and above ground museum rather than placing it under the memorial. But that was done because of pressures to build office towers around the site. It would make more sense for the museum to be across the street even if it meant incorporating them into other buildings.
This entry was posted on Friday, June 24th, 2005 at 11:33 am and is filed under News, Freedom Center. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.
3 Responses to “Design Center Exhibit Linked Bush With Osama Bin Laden”
Take Back The Memorial » Blog Archive » A Clearer Picture Says:
June 24th, 2005 at 12:29 pm e
[…] e suitable for some audiences. HERE IS A SAMPLE OF WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO SEE AT THE IFC MORE EXAMPLES HERE READ MORE
This entry was posted
on Friday, June […]
F. Green Says:
June 29th, 2005 at 2:34 pm e
I am appalled by those voices in the media and elsewhere calling for the suppression of social or political viewpoints in the arts.
The demands for the exclusion of the Drawing Center from the WTC exhibition space brings to my mind the actions and motives of Dr. Joseph Goebbels, former German Propaganda Minister, as seen in his Entartete Kunst exhibition of so-called “degenerate” and “Jewish” art staged by his Nazi ministry in Munich in 1937.
Personally, I am not comfortable keeping company with the likes of The Little Doctor.
joann Says:
June 29th, 2005 at 5:10 pm e
This memorial is not about nazis or ww2 or freedom iT IS ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DIED BECAUSE CRAZY RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS HATED US. I had friends who died on 911 This memorial should be about them PERIOD
http://911memorials.org/archives/2005/06/24/design-center-exhibit-linked-bush-with-osama-bin-laden/
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