Controversy delays 9/11 memorial 'Tempered By Memory'

[...] the artwork, "Tempered By Memory," stands in a Gansevoort steelyard, homeless, after objections to where it was to be installed, criticism of its artistic merit, accusations that City Council members were playing politics and heated rhetoric that led to a public apology.

"Every anniversary of Sept. 11 is significant, but for national and cultural reasons the 10th anniversary is a marker that feels different to people from the 9th anniversary or the 11th anniversary," says Joel Reed, executive director of Saratoga Arts.

[...] he says, it's American.

From memorials for Confederate soldiers after the Civil War to the 9/11 memorial opening today at ground zero, citizens have battled over the appropriateness, appearance and location of memorials.

The most conspicuous example is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Controversy consumed the project after Maya Lin, a 21-year-old undergraduate at Yale University whose parents emigrated from China, won a design competition for the memorial.

"Before the Vietnam War memorial, it was pretty clear what memorials should look like -- to make the dead look like heroes," Lachman says.

The 9/11 sculpture awaiting a home in Saratoga Springs is also different -- an extraordinary work of art, says a local art expert -- and could attract national attention.

Amejo Amyot, artist, activist and a founder of the Beekman Art District in Saratoga Springs, says the sculpture belongs in the scrap heap.

In spring 2010, the commanding officer of the Naval Support Unit in Saratoga Springs contacted Saratoga Arts about the possibility of obtaining World Trade Center steel for a sculpture in the city.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the twin 110-story buildings, saved about 1 percent of the salvaged steel for distribution to groups and communities,...