Above:
Adam Frelin polishes his sculpture, The Mirrorstone.
Below:
Proposal sketch of Living Room, by Nadya Volicer.
DWELLING:
Memory, Architecture and Place
June
24 through October 31, 2006
Participating
Artists
and Project Descriptions
Michael
Beatty and Mike Newby
Three elegant, whimsical structures combine the Gothic Revival architectural
motifs of Victorian monuments with a typical garden device: the birdhouse.
Birds are ancient symbols of the soul and transition; the artists also
pay tribute to the great variety of birds living at Forest Hills, enlivening
the landscape with motion and song.
Halsey
Burgund
The evocative memorials at Forest Hills enable people from the past to
“speak” to us about their relationships and lives. Halsey Burgund
uses 21st century technology to add a new layer of expression to this
evocative landscape. Using a cell phone or iPod, visitors listen to a
sound collage combining music and processed fragments of conversation
collected by the artist during interviews at Forest Hills.
Jim Coates
A symbolic shelter – a house outlined in gathered sticks – is
filled with growing sunflowers. It contains a single chair, offering an
inviting place for rest and reflection, a haven nestled into the brilliant
color and fragrance of a living garden.
Jay
Cummings
The typical Victorian family lot at Forest Hills is laid out to mimic
both the architecture of the family home and the structure of family relationships,
complete with internal hierarchies and the boundaries that separate one
family from all others. Jay Cummings creates a sculptural diagram of an
iconic family lot using simplified shapes cast in concrete. These elegant
forms will float quietly on the surface of the cemetery’s ornamental
lake, where water replaces the green lawn that separates monuments on
land.
Lesley
Davison and Joan Goody
An artist and architect combine forces to design an open pavilion expressing
their belief that “a person’s death leaves a gap in the world.”
Four corner posts and a spiderweb of wire hold up a translucent gabled
roof. This airy structure defines an empty room, a place that invites
visitors to come to terms with the loss of friends and family.
Adam Frelin
Many of the works on view refer to Victorian architecture. Frelin’s
piece draws its inspiration from a very different Boston landmark –
the John Hancock Building. His sculpture – a single tombstone with
a smooth mirrored surface – reflects its surroundings much like the
modern glass skyscraper, a monumental form that, paradoxically, disappears
into its environment.
Christopher
Frost
Miniature houses cast in concrete cluster on a rocky outcropping, creating
a neighborhood. Each house is modeled on the home of someone buried at
Forest Hills. The range of styles, from Queen Anne mansion to modern split
level, reflects the economic and social diversity of the generations of
Bostonians now residing in the Cemetery’s grounds.
Robert
Gilmore and Sarah Walker
Two architects have planted the seeds for a lush green outdoor room. Over
the course of the exhibition, fast growing vines will cover a simple wire
mesh structure, creating walls of foliage. A picture window opposite the
entrance frames a view of the landscape beyond; an open roof invites connection
with the sky.
Jason
Middlebrook
A stack of colorful birdhouses, some upside down, some at a jaunty angle,
rises from the reeds of Lake Hibiscus like a crooked totem pole. Whimsical
loops of aluminum piping connect one birdhouse to the next and suggest
energy and flight. The houses will dispense seeds and offer shelter.
Andrea
Thompson
Antique doorknockers are mounted on a series of posts 4 to 7 feet tall,
inviting visitors to knock and request entry to an invisible world. Each
post has a distinct resonant tone. The simple ritual of knocking builds
a bridge between past and present, presence and absence, ourselves and
those who have been here before us.
Nadya
Volicer
In a shaded space, an intricate Victorian carpet appears to break apart
and rise into the air. It is actually a mosaic made of colorful wood recycled
from demolished houses. Flying fragments dangle on invisible string from
overhanging trees. At the far end of the carpet stands a Victorian armchair.,
where the viewer can sit, surrounded by trees and the ascending fragments.
Nadya Volicer quotes poet Joaquim Cardoza: The
souls flew up from the ground: A flock of little birds.
Amy
Walsh
In three separate holes – hidden in a tree or the crevice of a stone
wall – the artist will furnish miniature interiors, elegant dioramas
containing details from lives of people buried here. An abolitionists’
meeting-room, for example, might contain a water jug and a well-used fireplace;
a poet’s, a writing table and a window. The spaces might be considered
to house the imagination of the living as we consider those who have passed
before us.
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