John Joseph WenckusAmsterdam Ave between W 100th St and W 99th StHeart Four · Location 376 · Drawn July 2004Download photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Download photograph 7Download photograph 8Download photograph 9Download photograph 10Download photograph 11Video podcast0:00This drawing was made on a catty corner surface.0:03At the intersection of Amsterdam and West 100th Street,0:07on the southeast corner, is a store with a diagonal entrance0:12facing right into the intersection.0:14This building used to be A. Joe Lumber Home Center,0:18and as Spring 2006, behind the double glass doors0:22with the numbers 817 above it, there is chaos and construction.0:27This drawing was made in the off hours on the retractable metal door pulled over this main entrance.0:34This is John Joseph Wenckus. He was drawn in July of 2004. His drawing is counting one person.0:44I'm just saying that if you ask the question what's the relationship, my first instinct is to say a good one.0:49It's actually really quite nice.0:50Extension of that is because every single name,0:54all 2,749 have been treated individually in a respectful manner.1:02So respectful that we have spent innumerable hours1:05trying to make sure that those are in fact the names1:08we're trying to respect in the first place.1:10And it drives us nutty to look at websites1:14that do not treat the names with the same degree1:19of obvious integrity or to use that word again respect you can think of dozens and dozens and1:27dozens and dozens of examples where basically a standard memorial page on the internet is1:32you copy and paste every single name you literally just copy and you paste it on your site1:39and you say this is this is the way i'm memorializing them by posting what can someone1:44I'm going to explain, like, they're using, and the word memorial is used for that.1:49And you're expressing some degree of frustration over the fact that that's kind of a mindless effort, so consider it a memorial?1:55It's funny because I wouldn't describe it necessarily right off the bat as mindless.1:59It's more of a, this is something they did by perpetuating the names and creating another oasis for that information to exist on the web.2:10But the lists are out of date.2:12it's rare that you actually have the right names.2:15It may have been a moment of spontaneity,2:18so it's reflecting like a time when the names were wrong.2:22And when I say our relationship to the victims is a good one,2:26I'm saying that we have a relationship2:30because we have poured over the details of their lives,2:35the details of the information that exists on them on the web,2:39and have been grouping them and reassigning them associations,2:44recontextualizing the entire event,2:45and trying to share those efforts with other people.2:54He was accompanied on the trip by his friend John Hoffer.2:58He was one sharp kid, said his father.3:00He was a great kid. He was my buddy, my best friend.3:04I'm going to miss him.← Location 375Heart Four · Location 376Location 377 →
