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Lesley Davison
and Joan Goody
Breathing Room
2006
Boston, MA
Tree trunks, large timbers, painted aluminum hardware cloth, gravel
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Artists'
Statement
Visiting a cemetery offers a chance for reflection. We can dwell on the
sadness of loss or remember and celebrate what an individual, now lost,
once added to our life.
Arundhati Roy, in The God of Small Things, describes someone’s death
— Joe’s, for example — as leaving a Joe-shaped hole in the
universe. Death leaves a gap, an empty space in the world. A mausoleum holds
remains and serves as a memorial, but it cannot fill the gap left by death;
it brings to mind absence. We hope our “dwelling” will instead
create a space of contemplation, a place to dwell on the time we had rather
than the time we lost.
We were inspired by the mausoleums at Forest Hills, particularly in our
use of the gabled roof. However, while those stone buildings are grounded
and solid, we constructed ours to be ethereal and penetrable. The timbers
at the base of our structure define the edges of the raked gravel floor
of our room and echo the granite bars that surround family plots in many
parts of the cemetery. The roof raises the eye in remembrance. Instead of
the heavy grey weight of grief, we aim to inspire the thoughtful, upward
gaze of memory.
We thank Peter Bogart and Ethan Kirmaier for their construction and installation
services.
Commissioned as part of the Trust's 2006 exhibition, Dwelling.
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