- Documentation of process sketches/ prototypes/ notes/ material exploration:
Upon doing research on Washington Square Park’s history I also wanted to research on what site-specific art is and what it means to create an oeuvre at a certain place. I found that the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork where if removed from that location loses all or a substantial part of its meaning. I knew that this project from the start was going to be a challenge due to the perimeters that we had in creating an installation work of art at a place as there are so many factors that have to be catered towards when creating a work that’s going to be put up in a public place.
Below is the consolidated information that we placed into each scroll that went into every coffin sitting on the bed of leaves :
Washington Square Park is a public space that people use for various forms of socialization, exercise and leisure. Some people even base their income off of selling and performing in the area. Most people are not aware of Washington Square Park’s dark history. The land was once served as a military field, a potter’s field and execution site. It is believed that over 20,000 people were buried beneath the parks surface. Most of the people were criminals, slaves, Indigenous Americans, the poor and ill woman. Approximately where the fountain is now, stood the gallows. The guilty were executed and here until 1820. These coffins were created in hopes of passing along the history to users of the park. The bulk of the bodies were never disturbed, meaning that they remain under the grass and pavement of Washington Square. Each coffin represents 100 corpses. The leaves represent the life that was lost and stored here, as well as the rich history that’s rooted in the soil of the park. We hope this gift you with new knowledge and a reminder to learn about the histories of the land you interact with.
- Documentation images of finalized piece:
- A written statement outlining my ideas and strategies for putting the concept into form
Our initial idea was to recreate a vault that was actually found during the period of time where the park was being excavated which consisted of skeletons that were very randomly positioned which gives us the reason to believe that people were not buried in an orderly manner/ fashion. We had also found that there was a time capsule that existed which consisted of some journals that people had written as well as some other paraphernalia related to the people who had been executed. Our vision was to merge these two ideas to create a vault that comprised of both elements- making it look like a shrine for the fallen. We were excited for this idea however after a conversation with both our studio professor as well as our substitute teacher we realized that it was not going to be feasible due to the sole fact that it would be incredibly hard to construct this vault as well as recreate the items that would go into this vault. This led us to also believe that if not put together intricately and close attention to detail that it was going to be very tough for people to understand what the purpose of our piece was and how they would even be drawn to interact with a vault in the middle of the park that was barely going to have space for one person to stand inside of each time. Our studio professor helped to lead us into the direction that would potentially very naturally create an interaction between the public and our work. The idea behind the construct of our final piece was to create a little free gift or souvenir that we would give to the public in the park that presented the melancholic history of the park in a nutshell. The common thought of ‘everyone loves free things’ was stuck in our heads and we wanted to try to find a way in which we could spread knowledge/ spark a conversation subtly to visitors of the park. We did this by trying to source for tiny coffins that we tried to find on the internet and had an idea of adding things that would symbolize the ideas that we were trying to put forward within the contents of the coffin.
- A written reflection on the Bridge
There was nothing specifically challenging about working with my group members for this group project. They were both very resourceful as well as committed towards figuring out what we wanted to envision for our piece. Patience was a quality that we each made sure to have from the start especially when it came to presenting ideas to one another as its very important to have that trust and vision to be transparent when it comes to sharing our ideas. There were so many instances where we were able to gain a better understanding on what we wanted to do for our project just by discussing very raw loose and unrefined ideas that we had in our minds. What I found surprising throughout the translating process was being unable to find mini coffins that were available during halloween where I figured would be a time where there would be an abundance of spooky paraphernalia. With regards to how our critique went I would say I am quite pleased as I feel that our work was well understood and almost everyone in our class was able to piece together the various elements that we had incorporated in the process of our work. As our critique went well I would say that every detail that we had tried to have within our piece was successful. What was unsuccessful was that just before our critique we were approached by the authorities who told us that we were destroying vegetation as we had dug up an area in the park without receiving any consent/ permission to do so. This caught my group-mates and I by complete surprise as we hadn’t seen any signs that said that we were not allowed to do this as well as the fact that we had chosen a specific location at the park that was of bare ground whereby we would not be destroying any likelihood of growth. This made by group-mates and I realize that site-specific installation is not always accepted in the way we want it to and can be completely misinterpreted as well as prohibited in some areas. If I could change anything it would be to have researched more into what sorts of site-specific installation we could have done that would not have gotten us summoned/ penalized for. Though some sort of perimeter to work under in that case could allow us to potentially create something slightly limiting.
- Additional thoughts/ feelings/ take-aways:
I am really pleased with how this bridge project was received. This was also my first group project at Parsons and am glad that I was part of a very productive group. I am excited for the next bridge!
