The three-ton steel firefighter stands almost nine feet tall. Inscribed on his helmet is FDNY 343, the number of firefighters who were killed on 9/11.
“I wanted him to be anybody. I wanted him to show a sense of power,” said artist Felix Gonzalez. “He represents the United States.”
Gonzalez worked 10 hours a day, six days a week for five years creating four steel sculptures that are part the Sept. 11 memorial for the city of Pembroke Pines. They will be unveiled on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
Artist Benoit Menasche chiseled a large marble sculpture, which has been placed in the center of the memorial and is surrounded by the Gonzalez’s steel pieces. Both artists volunteered their time, working together in a converted firehouse.
For his sculpture, made from a nine-ton block of marble, Menasche said he was inspired by the bas reliefs from his native Egyptian antiquities.
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“I wanted to say a story,” he said.
Each of the four sides depicts the stages of grief. First there is shock, which is depicted with figures including people jumping, a skull and a woman sitting in the fetal position. The front side shows grief. The third side shows how people started living again. People are shown helping each other, and the last side is about rebuilding.
“This is where we are right now,” Menasche said.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez’s sculptures also show us where we have been. Flanking the firefighter on both sides are abstract pieces named North and South Towers. The North Tower has four wings on the top of it that symbolize the airplanes.
Across the way, a little girl is depicted sitting on top of the wreckage. Gonzalez said he used his granddaughter as a model. Her steel hair flows behind her, her left hand holds a beam, while the right hand is outstretched. The watch on her hand reads 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane stuck the north tower.
“It’s most like a prayer,” Gonzalez said. “I want people to go there and be lifted up and to empathize with the characters that are there, and cry.”
Gonzalez, who learned how to use the tools needed to work with steel during his 28 years as a firefighter, said he is creating the last installment of the project, a piece depicting a barefoot woman standing on the edge of a building looking down.
“I want when people go over there, to that exhibit, for them to be transported back to that day,” he said.
And so, he has left little clues for the observer. The firefighter’s air tank dial is stopped at 8:46 and the air pressure gauges are pointing at the 9 and the 11. He also holds an ax and a pike pole.
For this three-dimensional work, Gonzalez won an award from American Welding Society, which will be presented to him during the unveiling to be held at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 11.
“The innocence is gone. They changed our lives,” Gonzalez said of the attacks. “This will make us stronger, but we can’t forget these people, the ordinary people that were killed.”
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