‘Remembering the Forgotten’ analyzes the remnants of memorials by comparing the erasure of the Court Street Cemetery to the leftover offerings at the Evergreen Cemetery.
The project features an artistic report and 5 framed photos. The 5 photos appear to be of houses and alleys, with superimposed archaeological drawings and flowers. These drawings were placed onto the documented location of graves from the Court Street Cemetery. Built in the 1910s, the Court Street Cemetery still holds over 1700 unexhumed burials. Above these burials sit around 80 homes, an apartment complex, a motel, and a church. Archaeological reports, which include drawings, photos, and written descriptions, are now the primary evidence of the Court Street Cemetery. The flowers found in the photos were taken from the Evergreen Cemetery. Twice a year at the Evergreen Cemetery, they remove the offerings brought for loved ones to refresh the space. These things end up in the back lot, where they are eventually thrown away. The artistic report documents the piles of flowers with photos and analysis. When do the flowers for a loved one stop being flowers and become trash? Did the Court Street cemetery ever stop being a cemetery? By bringing the already forgotten offerings from the Evergreen Cemetery to the Court Street Cemetery, the project connects them, reestablishing the cemetery as a place of mourning and the flowers as offerings.
The cemetery lives on, even if only flowers and bodies define it.
