Vital Records
2018-2020
Untitled
2020
Salt, 42” x 78”
In Spring 2018, I established a weekly artistic practice of visiting cemeteries all over New York City--from the small ones dotting either side of the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Queens, to the larger, well-known ones like Green-Wood in Brooklyn and Woodlawn in the Bronx. Each one, like a neighborhood, has a distinct feeling.
I began with one idea: searching for occurrences of the word “forever” on tombstones. As an artist especially fascinated with modes of temporal intensification, this word was like a beacon to me. I collected these forevers in rubbings on a 500 foot roll of receipt paper. It took two years to complete. Wanting the end result to be more than a static collection, I built a custom machine that moves the paper, which takes four hours to run through from beginning to end.
As with all of my collections, gathering this word was a place to begin, to connect me to the space I’m moving through; to the moment in time that I’m in; and to the language, symbols, and signals that call out to me.
Always
2020
Salt, 102” x 54”