Artist Christopher Saucedo, dressed in black, stood with his hands in his pockets next to his mixed media artwork at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan. His brother Gregory, a firefighter, died in the line of duty in the collapse of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Saucedo's work is part of an upcoming exhibit, “Rendering the Unthinkable: Artists Respond to 9/11,” in which 13 New York City-based artists explore their reactions to the airplane attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people died.
"We thought, there needs to be another way in to remembering, and we realized that art is another way in," Alice M. Greenwald, director of the 9/11 Memorial Museum, said on Thursday.
The exhibit stands as a counterpoint to the museum's permanent exhibitions, which tell the story of the Sept. 11 attacks and commemorate those who died with wrenchingly familiar sights as well as artifacts. The art ranges broadly in form, from paintings and sculptures to works on paper and video.
Saucedo, for instance, pressed linen pulp on handmade paper to create "World Trade Center as a Cloud," which comprises three panels, each 40 by 60 inches. American painter, sculptor Eric Fischl, who lost a friend in the attacks, is displaying a bronze sculpture, "Tumbling Woman."
“Rendering the Unthinkable: Artists Respond to 9/11,” is the first major special exhibition for the museum. It will open to the public on Sept. 12.
