The Magic of Light
Hudson River Museum, New York, 2002

This was the first (1st) venue of the work titled grace, where it was commissioned by the Hudson River Museum for the exhibition tilted The Magic of Light in 2001.
grace, was originally conceived as a formal work of light (a tower of light) meant to interact with another light work, a green fluorescent site-specific piece by Dan Flavin, permanently installed in the Hudson River Museum’s main skylight.
As a result of the attacks by the extremist al-Qaeda militants on September 11, 2001, the exhibition opening was postponed. The weeks that followed September 11, a cloud of smoke from the pile of the debris of the fallen World Trade Center towers steamed across the sky above my Brooklyn studio. During the first few days it seemed to rain non-stop ash and paper. Hundreds of torn and partially burned papers, lifted into the cloud by the force of the collapse of the two towers, fell in the front garden of my studio and became the source of nightmares-filled sleep, inspiring the paper wreath I created and installed below the work the morning the exhibition opened in January 2002.

grace became a memorial to everyone who lost their lives that day: civilians, emergency personnel, un-documented workers and the 19 militants themselves - all victims of failed US global policies and aggressions. At its base of the work the paper wreath contains all the names and could be taken away by visitors one-by-one.

curated by Ellen Keiter

Other artists included in this survey exhibition were: Dan Flavin, Stephen Antonakos, James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Susan Chorpenning, Pietro Costa, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Kenny Greenberg, Sheila Moss, Liz Phillip, Erwin Redl, Keith Sonnier, Robert Thurmer.