
A Burial (after Courbet)
A participatory performance exploring personal memory, grief, loss, ritual, and our connection to a land, a place and its history. A way of honouring equally the banal and the monumental.
Participants were invited to bring with them something they needed to let go of. I spoke of the history of the land, blending fact and fiction. We collectively dug a hole, and one by one, placed our items inside. A stuffed toy a boy had outgrew. A guitar pick from a man who was saying goodbye to a dream. An Italian children’s book from a woman who now knew she would never have a child with the man she loved. Some people spoke, some cried, some were uncomfortable. It was raining. We covered the hole with earth, as the Cornell Chimes rang out from the Clock Tower, the Chimemasters playing a song composed for the occasion. It was a sweet chant, a lullaby or eulogy, repetitive, so that participants could join in.
The performance resulted in a large-scale composite photograph of the event, exhibited at Tjaden Gallery. The photograph makes reference to Courbet’s Burial at Ornans, a work that symbolized a shift towards, and valorization of, the real and the everyday.
1-hour Participatory Performance, Printed Invitation & Inkjet Photographic Print, 60” x 120”
Installation shots from Groups
Tjaden Gallery, Cornell University
2011