Redding Sculptor is Co-creator of New 9-11 Memorial at Sherwood Island

The new 9-11 memorial unveiled Thursday at Sherwood Island Park in Westport, during a , was co-created by Redding sculptor Matt Rink, according to release on the Alfred University website.

The sculpture, entitled "Sanctuary," features steel salvaged from the site of the Twin Towers, and is mounted on a wall in the park’s Main Pavilion.

Rink, along with sculptor David Boyajian of New Fairfield, had the opportunity to create the sculpture after they won a competition sponsored by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.

The sculpture “complements Connecticut’s official 9-11 Living Memorial, a 9-foot long granite memorial stone on a nearby one-third-acre point in Sherwood Island that faces Manhattan, where smoke rising from the destroyed twin towers was visible for days,” the release states.

The sculpture is “a large floral festoon fabricated from aluminum, including — as required in the Request for Proposal — shards of the metal recovered from the Twin Towers,” the release states. “About 10 feet high and 30 feet wide, the sculpture dramatically undulates across the pavilion’s façade under the protection of a roof. Ten large flower petals, each marking a year since the tragedy, were fabricated from the World Trade Center’s remains. Except for the required cutting and bending of the pieces into floral shapes, the sheet aluminum retains the rough patina and marks found on them in situ.”

Rink and Boyajian both graduated from Alfred University — Boyajian, 53, received a BFA from the School of Art & Design in 1980 and Rink, 26, graduated with a BFA, Cum Laude, in May 2007.

According to the release, both studied under Alfred Sculptor Professor Glenn Zweygardt, who retired in 2007 and remains close to the artists.

“Boyajian and Rink, who jointly conceived the piece, welded the petals in place as they were found: dark, undressed forms, in contrast to the background made from new, polished aluminum sheet,” the release states.

An accomplished artist who has exhibited in Virginia, South Carolina, New York and Connecticut, Rink received an MFA, summa cum laude, from Clemson University.

According to the release he is co-founder of All Creations, a collaborative group specializing in public art that uses sustainable and renewable material in its practice.