Eiffel On Delancey
Lee Brozgol with Canal Street Research Association

July 14 - 30, 2022
291 Grand Street

In 1995, beloved Lower East Side artist Lee Brozgol (1941–2021) proposed The Triangle Shirtwaist Monument memorializing the victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that killed 146 garment workers, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women. Trapped in the burning building, many jumped to their deaths as all the doors were locked, ostensibly to prevent workers from taking breaks or stealing goods. The horror of the fire, and the unsafe and exploitative conditions that caused it, galvanized a movement, continuing a legacy of immigrant garment workers leading the fight for labor reforms and women’s rights.

Bootlegging France’s Eiffel Tower, Brozgol’s structure would cross Delancey, Canal Street’s sister thoroughfare just a few blocks north, and open up Forsyth Street, creating additional space for public gardens. Adorned with flowering trumpet vine, the Tower would act as a living monument and world-class attraction, with kiosks, a skateboarding park, and cafes at its base. The absurdist proposal was perhaps Brozgol’s tongue-in-cheek jab at cities’ attempts to turn sites of tragedy into tourist attractions. His proposal never approved, Brozgol made the image into a postcard that he doggedly sent round to various city officials—missives from an alternate reality.

To visit the Eiffel Tower is not so much to see the Tower itself—which is already visible from nearly every point in the city—but rather, to no longer see the Tower at all, and instead, at last, look out onto the city.

– Canal Street Research Association, Summer 2022

Lee Brogzol (1941 - 2021)
instagram @leebrozgol

Canal Street Research Association
instagram @canal_street_research