An Impermenant Memorial
An object looking at the history and present use of Nunhead Cemetery
An Impermanent Memorial is based off of the brief to intervene in a site - exploring how objects have an effect in revealing parts of the world around them. Our site was Nunhead cemetery, a victorian cemetery that is in the process of re-wilding. It now serves as a six acre park for the local community.
Our object was inspired by this juxtaposition of use and the process of re-wilding. During our site visits we were intrigued by the nature taking over these remembrances that were supposed to be permanent, the names now faded and hidden by time. Inspired by Heidegger’s work of “being: through action, we wanted our work to become a continual memorial through other’s participation. As well as design as a time-based medium.
The final object was names carved and written on twigs from the trees in the cemetery tied together with natural twine. The idea being that people could continuously add onto the object while other parts naturally get reclaimed by nature. A play on fragility and structure; and the materiality of memorials and preserving memory.
A group project with Felix Friend, Yewon Kim and Eve Lipkin.