9/11 Fourteen Years On - A Visual Reflection (á la Alfred C. Barnes)

Last year on this day, I wrote about a visit to the 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan.

This year, I encountered two separate images that seem filled with meaning for the day.

I provide those two images here. I think of this as an experiment in the spirit of Alfred C. Barnes, the art theorist who endowed the Barnes Foundation museum that I have enjoyed visiting so many times in Philadelphia.  Barnes encouraged people to consider art objects in juxtaposition with each other, to try to see possibilities brought up by seemingly unconnected objects, and to decide for themselves what the significance of the objects is. (No "expert opinion" needed.)

This seems very much in keeping with the spirit of blogging!

I hope people will think about them, and comment below.

(PS - Each image comes with metadata -- the former with quite a bit, since it went viral on Facebook -- and you are encouraged to follow the links to learn the "back story" of each of the two images.)

9/11 Rainbow
(CREDIT: Ben Sturner)

Nuclear I, CH
László Moholy-Nagy

Related posts

I was back in New Jersey to visit with high school friends in July. It gave me the opportunity to visit the newly opened 9/11 Memorial. Not surprisingly, what I saw made me spend days and weeks thinking about the memorial itself, and the larger issue of 9/11 in our national life. Out of all that I have seen and heard and read and thought about, several thoughts keep rising to the top.

(See 9/11 Memory: Grieving and Celebrating Valor, Leaving Vengeance Behind )


I never quite understood how much of a Chicago story the Bomb and opposition to it really is. I can think of at least three reasons why people right here in Chicago -- today -- need to make themselves heard about nuclear disarmament . . .

(See Unfinished Business in Chicago (Nuclear disarmament, that is))












Perhaps most startling of all, the area affected by 3rd degree burns would extend far beyond the city limits to encompass towns as far north as Waukegan, as far west as St. Charles, and as far south as Crete, and as far east as Gary, IN.

(See What Would a Nuclear Weapon Do to Chicago? (Go ahead, guess . . . ) )

Is it possible that we will only truly understand God's promise to humanity once we understand that there are some outcomes that would make a mockery of God's forgiveness, and that God has empowered us to prevent those outcomes, and that it's now up to us to do so.

(See ATOMIC HUBRIS: Are There Some Things That Won't Be Forgiven? )