WESTVILLE -- Purdue North Central remembered the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in marble more than 11 feet high and 12,000 pounds, a permanent addition to its sculpture collection.
Artist Bill Barrett created Lexeme VIII as part of a series commemorating the attacks on New York and Washington.
He felt Lexeme VIII, the first marble piece he’s done, needed to be in stone and is glad that it’s near his alma mater, South Bend Central High School.
“You always feel something for a place you grew up in and want to have some connection with it,” Barrett said.
Barrett, whose studio was 10 blocks from the World Trade Center, donated the piece and likes its position outside Schwarz Hall.
“It’ll always be on view,” he said.
The artist and his wife were in Santa Fe, N.M., during the attacks because work on another piece delayed their return to New York City.
They watched it on television and spoke by phone with their son, who had just dropped his daughters at school five blocks from ground zero.
Assistant Vice Chancellor Judy Jacobi had asked Bennett, who’s exhibited pieces at PNC before, to provide a piece for the campus again, and the donation came from that.
Along with the dedication of the statue, the crowd offered two moments of silence at about the times that each plane crashed into the towers.
Chancellor James B. Dworkin noted the flag next to the statue was half mast for the day and that the sculpture’s name means “a meaningful unit in a language.”
On the journey to peace, “it’s a task that’ll start with the common language of humanity,” Dowrkin said.
The event was attended by university officials and students and members of the Vietnam Veterans group, The Wall Gang.