time is the school...
2011–17
Time is the School . . . depicts the events at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The tallest structures in the background represent the two World Trade Center buildings (as viewed from across the Hudson River in New Jersey). Both towers have been hit and the South Tower on the right is in the process of collapsing.
The second element in the tableau represents the lower buildings of the World Financial Center that, at over 600 feet, are half the height of Tower 1 and Tower 2. This lower cityscape formally functions to bridge the height differential between the Twin Towers and the children's book in the foreground, I Wish I Were a Fireman, that inspired the piece.
On the floor in front of the pedestal is a vintage toy fire engine, in which a boy dressed in full fireman regalia is driving . Like the child figures in the other tableaux beset by mishaps, his is that he is being constricted by a fire hose wrapped around his body.
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![The white-on-green cursive quote (aka “alphabet line”) that accompanies this piece and from which it derives its title is from the poem “Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day” by Delmore Schwartz. It reads as follows: “Time is the school in which we learn,/Time is the fire in which we burn.” [Unlike the other quotes above tableaux, this one is on multiple planes due to the background wall’s built-in irregularities.]
The smoke clouds are printed on separate pieces of PVC that are attached both in front and in back of the North Tower, suspended from the ceiling by monofilament.
The painted blue of the background wall refers to the fact that all eyewitnesses on 9/11 reported that the sky was a beautiful blue.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/db7dc4_41d8d8d3e00e4699920efbb2b4732210~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_2001,h_567,q_90/db7dc4_41d8d8d3e00e4699920efbb2b4732210~mv2.webp)
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