ON GRAVE HORIZON
A visual journey conceived of as a virtual memorial for my Great-Great Grandfather, who presumably died in an industrial accident in 1889 and was buried in an unmarked grave on Chicago's southside shortly after immigrating from Sweden.
2010 - 2011
VIDEO
PHOTO
TEXT
In the late 1880’s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, my great-great grandfather, Ludwig Persson, caught the “American fever” and sold his horse for a boat ticket to the land of opportunity. He left behind a wife, Ulla, and three children, Selma, Lisa, and Carl. He was the first member of the family to emigrate from Sweden. He was 24 years old.
After arriving in the United States Ludwig Persson changed his name to Louis Peterson. Within months of Louis’ arrival to Chicago, Ulla received a package containing a pair of his pants that were bloodstained and his pocket watch. According to a coroner’s inquest I obtained, his death on January 23, 1889 at Cheltenham resulted from “from concussion of the brain. Caused by being accidentally struck on the head by limestone dumped from cars on trusse boom at the North Chicago Rolling Mill at South Chicago, IL, January 19, 1889.”
Since Louis had no family present to claim him, his body was subsequently buried in an unmarked grave somewhere on Chicago’s south side. There is little known about Louis Peterson within my family. My aunt remembered my grandfather mention visiting his grave at Oakwood Cemetery in the 1950’s. We also have an article written by an unknown author about Ulla Naucler, Louis’ wife, in the late 1940’s, who provided a brief description of the grave, “It was near a landmark, so we found the grave. The grass was out and we could see the outlines of the mound. Small trees were planted here and there. I thought to myself – there should be a marker – Ulla would like that. As we walked away I took a mental survey of the location.”
In the summer of 2010 my cousin, Jeremy, and I visited family in Ludvika, Sweden that came from Ulla’s second marriage, after Louis. They showed us a historical record book that traced family lineages of the entire area. According to those records Louis Peterson had died 1/23/1889 in America.
With this amount of information I was able to obtain a coroner’s inquest from Cook County about the specifics of Louis’ death. We then contacted Oakwood cemetery and they were able to help us locate the unmarked plot where he was buried by tracing his date of death.
It was our aim to construct a modest grave marker for Louis Peterson that would serve as a memorial and a demarcation of his body. Our plans were quickly dashed by official cemetery regulations that required a $300 permit plus the cost of a “proper” headstone that fit the aesthetic function of the cemetery grounds. It was with this obstruction in mind that I began to conceive of a mobile or virtual memorial that could transcend the limits of a physical memorial.
The limits are specific to a custom that requires physical presence in an exact location to necessitate a connection to the dead: time, place, and perception. Our identification with the dead through a ritual or monument corresponds with the “aura” defined by Walter Benjamin in “The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” as, “its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place it happens to be.” Benjamin goes on to define “natural aura,” as “the unique phenomenon of distance.” In the not-too-distant past, ceremonies honoring the dead were complex formal rituals that were embedded in a specifically rich cultural history. The idea of a pure culture has assumed the authority of the “aura,” hence our current nostalgic obsession with preserving their rituals. Benjamin later reflects, “the unique value of the ‘authentic’ work of art has its basis in ritual.” How can we appropriate the vital dynamics of ritual for our current conditions?
One answer is that we have to create our own ceremonies and rituals again. We have to re-translate ancient customs and signs into a contemporary context specific to our own identity, and readable to a displaced and diverse population.
In “The Radicant,” Nicolas Bourriaud addresses the predicament of cultural disorientation. “The ground is giving way; we are told to compromise our rituals, our culture, and our history, now confined to standardized urban contexts that no longer reflect any image of us, except in locations reserved for that purpose: museums, monuments, historic districts. Our environments no longer reflect history; rather, they transform it into a spectacle or reduce it to the limits of a memorial. Where can it be rediscovered? In portable practices.” (33).
It is the idea of the traditional memorial that I am working against. If I would have constructed a physical memorial it would only have reiterated the position of the static and removed object that is bound by the regulations of the museum of the dead. It would have upheld the status quo of the cemetery. I want to transcend the limits of this place as a mediator between Louis Peterson and his family.
Cultural dissolution was just becoming evident when Louis Peterson sold his horse in Sweden to work for a steel mill in Chicago. Louis’ cultural identity was compromised as an effect of early globalization, and his physical identity was taken by the anonymity of his death during the Industrial Revolution. I am attempting to reclaim his identity from this anonymity by locating his grave plot and constructing a ritual/ monument in the form of a video. The video format is favorable because it allows me to investigate the process of the search, capture something ephemeral about the location, and is a document attempting to restore an ancestral bond through a reification of his death.