Secular Columbarium for The Island / Information

The Southwester, 1970

Secular Columbarium for The Island is a site-based art project and mythologization of the neighborhood Southwest D.C. (known in the 19th century as "The Island”). I created an imagined memorial located in the Capitol Skyline Hotel, SW in which objects from Southwest's recent and distant history reflect the neighborhood’s past, present, and future. Like in a traditional columbarium, the objects both commemorate and reanimate a lost feeling, experience, or life. Southwest is a neighborhood with a rich history, but also a vibrant present and an uncertain future (of which the renovated hotel is a part). Like many others who visited the hotel, I was not familiar with Southwest; the items that fill the columbarium are created in mind from content gleaned online, archival research, and from my meetings and interactions with members of the SW neighborhood over a three month period.

Installation view, 2012

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Installation view, 2012
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Vanessa Ruffin (b.1952) remembers growing up in SW in the 1950's. Ladies carried red boxes of Argo starch to the laundry, kids played marbles and baseball, men bet on tricks in the busy streets. Laundry sheets flew. Industry and the horse stables resided nearby. "No one really makes anything here anymore".
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Installation detail, 2012
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Kathleen Turner, now starring in "the Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivans" at Area Stage on 6th Street.
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David Harris, a fraternity brother and friend of Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor recalls when they went at it in a series of 5-on-5 encounters on various D.C. playgrounds. The city's top young black ballplayers played alongside the headliners, making for an ungodly grouping of future NBA first-round picks, NCAA tournament MVP's, and Hall of Famers. Mobs created entirely via analog social media appeared wherever Chamberlain and Baylor played.
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President Truman officially endorsed plans developed during the FDR administration to rehabilitate housing in SW, urging District officials in 1952 to "go right to it-- that's the way I feel about it". Tiber Island (1963-65) by Keyes, Condon, & Lethbridge, was one of more then 10 housing projects that made the SW redevelopment Area one of the nation's most ambitious urban renewal projects. It was wisely praised for the high caliber of its design.
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The NCAI (National Congress for American Indians) is located in SW and was established in 1944 in response to the termination and assimilation policies the US government forced upon tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and status of sovereign nations.
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Morris Lapidus (1902- 2001)
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Marvin Gaye grew up in SW. He attended Randall Junior High School across the street from the Capitol Skyline Hotel.

The above excerpts are from the Visitor Guide, which I provided to visitors on-site at the time of the installation. The guide was designed to invite interaction and instigate dialogue with the specific objects housed within the columbarium.