The project “We Will Soon Be Forgotten That We Touch” was prompted by a conversation I had with my friend Nigel Rudolph, a public archaeology coordinator at the Florida Public Archaeology Network. His project is about conserving cemeteries in Alachua county. He has been documenting abandoned and neglected cemeteries with the Alachua County Historical Commission. In many cases, cemeteries were covered and infrastructure was built above. As time goes by, it is as if they never existed. Nigel’s research prompted me to think of ways to document our human experience through the tactility of clay, which has archaeological values.
The project begins with a series of photographs, in which clay is pressed on bodies to document our tactile experience. These clay pieces will then be fired to its permanent state for preservation. I focus on documenting our tactile experience to talk about our human experience because it only exists in sensations and memories. If such an experience isn’t written on our tombstones or in books, we will be forgotten that we touch and we are touched. In one of Nigel’s cemetery laser scans, a system of rectangular shapes showed up to indicate there are caskets beneath the ground. Because of this, the clay pieces will be displayed on a series of rectangular metal frames, mounted on a wall and accompanied by photographs of his research and the projection of the process of this project.
