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Absence / Yoon, J. Meejin., 2003

 Item
Identifier: CC-41643-43633

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Scope and Contents

The perforations in the book correspond to an aerial view of 120 floors of the twin towers of the World Trade Center with the final page the absence of other buidings in the surrounding ground following September 11, 2001.Lost Books: Both a book and a sculptural object, ABSENCE is a memorial to the twin towers of the World Trade Center. At almost two pounds, ABSENCE has a considerable physical presence, but it is in every way the ghost of a presence, and it is this ghostliness that gives it its particular emotional weight. A solid white block of thick stock cardboard pages, the book's "text" consists of one pinhole and two identical squares die-cut into each of its one-hundred-and-twenty pages -- one for each story of the towers including the antenna mast. These removed elements lead the reader floor by floor through the missing buildings towards the final page where the footprint of the entire site of the World Trade Center is die-cut into a delicate lattice of absent structures. The simplicity of Yoon's materials and her use of repetition speak, without words, about unspeakable loss. At the same time, as a scale model of a vanished architectural site, it operates on a larger cultural level by commemorating the site itself. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates

  • Creation: 2003

Creator

Extent

0 See container summary (1 hard cover book + pages (papercard, perforated) + 2 sheets (photocopied) (122 pages) in cover (perforated)) ; 12.5 x 9.8 x 6.3 cm

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Physical Location

Sackner Location: box small artist books 2nd bedroom alcove Item in cataloguing queue 4/18/23 CG

Custodial History

The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, on loan from Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and the Sackner Family Partnership.

General

Published: New York : Printed Matter; Whitney Museum of American Art. Nationality of creator: American. General: About 2000 total copies. General: Added by: MARVIN; updated by: RUTH.

Repository Details

Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository

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