Double Check the Survivor by Seward Johnson - IV

DOUBLE CHECK the survivor
By Seward Johnson
Bronze, 2014

In 1982, Seward Johnson completed work on what would become one of his most renowned sculptures. ‘Double Check’ is the life-sized bronze of a businessman sitting on a bench as sifts through his briefcase, seeming to make final preparations for an upcoming business meeting in a nearby office building. Shortly after it was completed, the work was installed in Liberty Plaza Park, in lower Manhattan. The sculpture soon became a fixture in the downtown landscape and, for nearly twenty years, a symbol in honor of the thousands of people who worked every day in New York City’s financial district.

On September 11, 2001, the associations that millions of people made with ‘Double Check’ day after day changed dramatically when an Islamic Terrorist attack on the United States destroyed both towers of the World Trade Center. As The New York Times wrote in 2004 about ‘Double Check’ in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

“With everything in ruins, one figure remained in Liberty [Plaza] Park across the street from The World Trade Center. He was sitting hunched over, staring in his briefcase, a businessman who seemed to be in shock and despair. Rescue workers, it was reported, approached him in the chaos to offer assistance, only to discover that he was not a man at all, but a sculpture. Afterwards, this sculpture became an icon, as newspaper and magazine photos showed it covered in ash and, later by flowers, notes, and candles left there by mourners and rescue workers. ‘Double Check’ was a memorial to all those who perished. It was also a fitting metaphor for the city: though the sculpture had been knocked loose from its moorings, it had endured.”

The New York Times, January 16, 2004

Johnson left visible on the original “Double Check’ sculpture all of the damage that the piece had sustained in the attacks as a permanent of what happened that day. It was reinstalled on a granite bench in the plaza it had occupied before the attacks of September 11, which has been renamed Zuccotti Park. It remains there today.

Grounds For Sculpture

Nestled in the heart of central New Jersey lies Grounds For Sculpture, a magical place where art and nature are always at play. At its core are more than 270 sculptures by renowned and emerging contemporary artists, each thoughtfully positioned on meticulously landscaped parkland full of thousands of exotic trees and flowers. It is a feast for the senses.

The works, many of them monumental, include those of such distinguished artists as Clement Meadmore, Anthony Caro, Beverly Pepper, Kiki Smith, George Segal, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and Isaac Witkin. They join the enchanting works of our visionary founder Seward Johnson as well as many others by the finest up and coming artists of our time.

www.groundsforsculpture.org/index.cfm

Taken in: United States / New Jersey / Trenton / Hutchinson Mills (show map)

Taken on: May 20, 2014

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Double Check the Survivor

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Sets appears in: • Double Check the Survivor by Seward Johnson

Groups appears in: • Weird New Jersey • NJ - MEMORIALS (Wars, 911, Police, Fire, 1st Responders) more » • Grounds for Sculpture • New Jersey - Photographers, Semi-Pro & Amateurs • New Jersey________YEAH! • flickr clickx « less

Camera: Nikon D7000, f/4.8, 1/160 sec, 45mm (=67mm), ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7000
Lens:	18.0-105.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/4.8
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	45mm (35mm equivalent: 67mm)
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
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Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Macintosh)
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