William KrukowskiCentral Park between W 85th St and W 86th StHeart Four · Location 351 · Drawn March 2004Download photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Video podcast0:00In Central Park, in the Great Lawn, north of the Oval, is another mini park dedicated to pine trees.0:07It's called the Arthur Ross Pintum.0:09Inside of this pine tree forest, there's a circular path.0:13If you go to 12 o'clock on the circular path and look down, you'd see the area that this fireman was drawn.0:19The firemen constructed out of small pieces of mulch gathered from the dirt and mulch0:24path leading towards the one story brick maintenance building in the background.0:30Just north of the drawing's location is a tall tree that has had a large limb cut off0:36about eight feet from its base.0:39This is William Krukowski.0:41He was drawn in March of 2004.0:44His drawing is counting one person.0:47In this location, we took our only objective tourist photograph in the entire project right there.0:55What do you mean by an objective tourist photograph?0:57That means that in the fashion of sort of the young graffiti artist that makes something on a wall1:05and then poses in front of it as an act of self-proclamation and pride in their work,1:11we have two photographs that Jay took from the tree of Andrew and I posturing1:17and posing in front of our creation and this was done knowing full well that it1:24was wrong that we would never ever actually do that but we just felt that1:30at a bare minimum we had to break the silence and at least have it for our own1:34dark secret that we have a photograph like that. Why is that a dark secret?1:38You have to explain.1:40We are trying our best at every stage of the game1:44to ride that line between the emotional weight of the situation1:51and just the human experience of actually enjoying being outside and making things.1:57So we have a dilemma there all the time2:01where we're enjoying the process of being together and drawing,2:04but we are with the enjoyment of course is severely subdued by our subject2:11matter and content I'm just thinking about the fact that when an official2:15memorial gets built its builders have their name in some way shape or form all2:19over the project whether it be the construction signs that sit outside of2:24the memorial as it's being built or in the newspapers who write about the2:28wealthy donors who made the project possible names get slapped onto these2:33these objects routinely.2:35And we've done a really fantastic job2:37of distancing ourselves from it, by and large.2:40You know, if you surf the website2:42or look for any of the drawings,2:44you would find no mention of its creators.2:48Our narrative, our experience,2:49which is important and well-considered,2:52but it's also the figure and not corporate sponsorship.2:58We're in a tough space with the website2:59because when people ask about the project their main interest is in process first followed by a3:08bit of content followed by a bit of intention followed by the work itself and that is the3:13order and has been in our experience for you know for a decade so on the website we honored that3:20order by answering all the questions that we've been asked over the years and we just made writing3:27and podcasts related to the questions.3:31We feel uncomfortable sometimes because it comes across as,3:34oh, all you just do is talk about yourself, da-da-da,3:37but the bottom line is that people want to know,3:42and so we're making an effort to share it.3:44Well, that's why I'm here, right?3:45Yes.3:48When William E. Krakowski gave up his motorcycle,3:52he took up a bicycle.3:53He got his exercise.3:55He rode the bike to work most days at Ladder Company 21 in Manhattan from his home in Bayside,4:02Queens.4:03While he was waiting to be called to the fire department, he worked in construction and4:09with the New York Department of Sanitation at Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island,4:15where, more recently, the rubble from Ground Zero has been taken.← Location 350Heart Four · Location 351Location 352 →
