August 25, 2006
9/11 Shrine, With the Tragic, Toxic Dust
By GLENN COLLINS
It is always dangerous to disturb toxic dust, but this dust is historic, and possibly sacred.
This week, a crew in hazard suits navigated a sealed bubble at the New-York Historical Society to recreate an eerie time capsule of Sept. 11, 2001, as the fifth anniversary approaches.
Starting on Monday, the workers began carefully carrying dust-covered Levi’s jeans and begrimed, flag-bearing Ralph Lauren sweaters out of storage. Then they meticulously positioned them as they were first preserved under glass in the storefront of Chelsea Jeans, a block from the World Trade Center. Enclosed by the store’s owner, David Cohen, the impromptu shrine became a place of pilgrimage for thousands of tourists, mourners and recovery workers in the year after the attack.
“Here I am, trying to preserve what I normally clean off,” said Alan Balicki, the senior conservator at the society, who is accustomed to removing grime from rare maps and prints and the occasional Audubon folio. For this job, he wears a space suit. “It’s strange to be so carefully preserving something that is so destructive.”
The relics — blue jeans and red, blue and yellow tank tops, T-shirts and sweaters covered with toxic dust from ground zero— were removed by the society in October 2002 from the now-vacant store at 196 Broadway near Fulton Street.
The exhibition, “Elegy in the Dust: Sept. 11th and the Chelsea Jeans Memorial,” opens today at the society at 77th Street and Central Park West, and will be on view through Jan. 7. Amy Weinstein, the curator, called it “a visceral reminder of the terror, grief and emotional turmoil of that day.”
Nothing like the installation has been done before, she said. The fragile textiles and the toxic dust that coated them required delicate handling. Curators had to protect themselves from the exhibition artifacts and also ensure the safety of museum visitors.
Since so many relatives of World Trade Center victims believe their loved ones’ remains are present in the ground zero residue, the artifacts “must be treated respectfully,” Ms. Weinstein said. ...
Carl