Bill Barrett Sculpture

New York, NY -- On May 4, 2011, sculptor Bill Barrett will install an 11-foot-high fabricated bronze sculpture in Tribeca's Finn Square Park. The sculpture, titled "9/11" (from the Lexeme Series), will stand as a memorial to September 11, 2001, for a period of six months. It will be situated at the south end of Finn Square, between the New York Law School and the Square Diner, where Varick Street, West Broadway, and Leonard Street come together. The City of New York, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Community Board 1, and Friends of Finn Square have all approved the sculpture's placement. Funding is being generously provided by Newmark Knight Frank and the Gural Family, and by Kouros Gallery, who has represented the artist since 1985.

Meant to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Barrett hopes his sculpture will help fill some of the emptiness created when the Twin Towers fell. The Lexeme Series began as a way for Barrett to process and talk about the heartbreaking events of September 11, 2001. It includes works in fabricated bronze; stainless steel and fabricated bronze; and an 11-foot-high Carrara marble piece that was carved in Carrara, Italy, and shown in Zell, Germany. In their own unique way, all of the Lexeme sculptures incorporate the presence of the World Trade Center. "9/11" is composed of two massive, geometric shapes that rise upwards, suggesting the dominant presence of the Twin Towers. Organic forms flow over, around, and through these two pillars, surrounding them with energy and movement. The sculpture represents a continuum, rather than an ending. Barbara Fultz, one of the directors of Friends of Finn Square, recently wrote about the sculpture's ability to uplift the community: "... I felt that the sculpture echoing and creating an abstraction of the visual forms of what we saw on 9/11 is regenerative, one of art's gifts - memories we can bear to live with."

Barrett has been a member of the Tribeca community for over 40 years. His studio is just around the corner from the installation site. Barrett has displayed sculptures at Finn Square in the past, and they have all been greatly enjoyed by the surrounding community.