Cemetery Dawdlers

Location: Bard College Cemetery

Authors: Chantal Yoshino + Edie Odegard

Agents/Actors: Grave Offerings [Deconstructed]

Topic/Keywords: mineral, mining, quarry, gravel, clay,

silicia, crystals, pigments, pieces

The Bard College cemetery sits on the side of the Stevenson library, continuing into the forest. It is speculated to be built in 1860, as that was when the first tombstone was placed although there is no official date to when it was established. It is speculated that the cemetery was once a European Burial Ground when St Stephens College existed (now Bard). The entryway is a small, wooden house known as a Lychgate. In the past, lychgates were used as an introductory structure to any burial service happening. As the user progresses through the graveyard, they might notice the disorganized structure of it, too. Each gravestone sits very uniquely from one another, unless the person buried has other family members beside them. In that case, the graves adjacent are of the same stone, writing, and presentation. The uniformity of the design, rock choice, and style allow family gravestone to stay as a single formation / family, even when buried. Many gravestones are of professors, writers, artists, and musicians. Some notable gravestones include Hannah Ardent and her husband, Hendrich Blucher, the Bard family, and many more. Most of the gravestones are made of limestone, granite, marble, and stone. While there was no information regarding the materiality and choice of minerals, it can be assumed that each grave was chosen based on aesthetic, practical, or personal considerations. Some gravestones have small piles of stones left on top. Many people choose to place small rocks to mark visitation of the grave, and to commemorate whoever is buried. We can also look at small rocks as a more permanent recognition over flowers. While flowers over time will wilt and die, rocks will exist in the earth forever, and can contain stories of history that we may not even know.

Visitation Stones:

Long-practiced Jewish bereavement practice symbolizing respect to the deceased. Small and large stones are placed atop graves by visiting mourners, which accumalate over time,

outside of the Jewish faith or culture.

Candles:

Another long-practiced bereavement practice which can be traced back to communties in the early 4th and 5th centuries. Lighting candles beside graves is often associated with a time-related practice. The intention is provide light as protection and memorial of the deceased. Candles are linked with many religious practices, particularly within Christian practices of vigil.

Flowers:

Presumably an extension of the practice of offering flowers to the living, flowers as grave offerings do not seem to have a particular origin though they have a long-standing place within religious and cultural rituals and sacraments. Flowers are associated as a symbol of organic life and its brevity. Different flowers have more specific meanings associated with their representation on gravestones. While this practice is not limited to Christian practices, it is not traditionally apart of Jewish bereavement practices due (in summation) to the belief that everyone should be buried alike without distinctions of class and the belief that organic life should be utilized rather than placed with the dead.

Flags:

Placing flags on a veterns grave is understood to be respectful of the deceased’s memory and military service. This tradition was established in the U.S. by the time of the Spanish-American War (1898). Congress first authorized funding for burial flags for veterans with limited assets on March 4th, 1923 in an amendment to the War Risk Insurance Act of 1914. 

Books:

A book, when represented within the gravestone can be analyzed as ‘the book of life’. Otherwise, the practice of leaving books as visiting offerings seems to have individual, personal origins relating to the deceased. For example, authors’ graves may recieve copies of their works or a child’s grave may be offered editions and sequels of their favorite books

Lichen:

Composed of multiple fungi. In NY State there are over 800 types of lichens which form unique relationships with surfaces such as gravestones. Lichen plays a role in soil formation, slowly breaking down large rocks into smaller pieces. This agent also carry out processes that add essential nutrition to forest soils. Lichen can give clues to air pollution.

CEMETERIES AS A...

CITY

When thinking of materiality, there is a distinct similarity to what is used to build a city and what is used to build a cemetery: Stone, cement, brick, minerals. Cemeteries are mapped, and gravestones are placed according to the paths.

WASTELAND

Growing with modernity, population, and economic changes, mass suburban cemeteries have developed, where land and eschatological values has

reduced costs. “unlike the porous, permeable stone of ancient building, the material of modernism does not ‘ruin.’ Concrete does not decay. It does

not slowly erode and corrode, fade out or fade away.

It cannot monumentally disintegrate. (…) Adverse to deterioration, it does not age easily, gracefully or elegantly.” (30)

LANDSCAPE

“Burial of the dead creates dynamic shapes and force-fields in the inherited landscape: barrows, tumuli, stone circles, groves, windswept cemeteries

and even burial islands”. This catch is most clear in Adolf Loos’ famous dictum, which reads: “if we find a mound six feet long and three feet wide

in the forests, formed into a pyramid, shaped by a shovel, we become serious and something says, ‘someone lies buried here” (21)

HETEROTOPIAS

Michel Foucault categorizes cemeteries as ‘heterotopias,’ with other spaces like museums and prisons. These places signify the places that exist

outside of ordinary social realms,but still exist and function within the world. These spaces operate on their own terms, creating distinct worlds

within the larger society.

HOME

In the modern years, we don’t expect to know where to be buried. And for that the casket serves as a symbol of home.