David LaforgeCentral Park between W 89th St and W 88th StHeart Four · Location 357 · Drawn December 2001Download photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Download photograph 7Download photograph 8Video podcast0:00This drawing was made out of gathered snow in Central Park.0:05To find the space that this drawing was made in,0:07you can travel to the southwest corner of the reservoir and find the bridle path.0:12This dirt path heading to the north will eventually be overlooking a shallow, grassy valley.0:19If you entered into that valley, you would pass by a birch-like tree with a wide wingspan.0:25Keep walking along, you'll pass several other trees on your right.0:30and about 150 yards from entering this valley,0:33you'll find a tree that's bluish in nature0:36and some variation of a pine tree with short, one-inch needles.0:41This drawing was made to the south of that tree,0:44on the ground, on a patch of grass not covered with snow.0:49This is David LaForge.0:51He was drawn in December of 2001.0:55His drawing is counting 10 people.0:58The space that we're in right now is so nice and so quiet and so well laid out.1:05It's just sort of, this is maybe a grim relationship to make, but it has this piece of a cemetery.1:16And I say that in the sense that it is considered and cleaned and groomed1:22and has the ambiance of just what those environments try to make.1:28Over here on the ground, in that first snowfall after the fall of the World Trade Center,1:36there was, underneath this sort of bluish pine tree, an area that was clear of snow.1:45Moisture gathers here, and even today there's a large puddle in the middle of this valley,1:49and the moisture sort of dissolved the snow,1:53and so you had a big sheet of white blanketing everything,1:56and then a patch of grass framed by that white.2:02And I went about gathering the snow from the borders2:07and bringing it into the center2:09and creating a positive of that fireman2:13from the center of that frame.2:15And that was the first time that the snow2:17had been used as a drawing medium.2:21And I will see a couple of examples of that2:24throughout the project.2:26maybe half a dozen times or so.2:29David LaForge's childhood dream was to fight fires.2:33As a child, he would pretend to rescue people.2:36The 24-year-old veteran of the New York City Fire Department2:40had just finished his shift at Ladder 20 in Manhattan on September 11th.2:45But when the call came from the World Trade Center,2:49he jumped in a fire engine and raced downtown.← Location 356Heart Four · Location 357Location 358 →
