Rt. 18
In chatting with local residents
… during my time as Artist in Residence at the New Bedford National Whaling Historical Park, I heard many personal stories connected to the downtown and the adjoining neighborhoods. and although the city’s nautical past and present loom large in the narrative, I was drawn to more recent and terrestrial tales
I was moved by the stories I heard.
They were specific to that city, yet familiar to any city that affected by urban renewal and highway construction that recklessly or intentionally targeted poor and minority populations. As a visitor with limited time in the city, I was overwhelmed by the number of stories that were not mine to tell.
With my thoughts returning to the highway
… that I drove in on every day,
I started to understand
The opening of the printed script as displayed at the open house performance
a performance that would tell the story of that road and the stories of what had been buried under that road.
A story that I could tell.
ldsglkfnghlkf ksjdl fjdsl g gsdlk fjsdk kjasjweiwe kjsdfj fjsd jfd jsdf sdfhfhj hsd f hf fs k sdkj sdhdf f hsdfhhfw dfsdf dsowe sdhf dhf sd hde fsd fhfe sd sdhkjsd hd f fdhs fsd sdf kjhhudu sdkjsdh f jsdd isd f sd sdsdf hbsdd fhsdf iuh sfhsdhsd sd hsdf fiohu fds fisdwe hjs f ihf s f s fweh ffsdh fs f fkjshd fdsh f sf shdf sd
The eventual performance / installation centered around knots.
I used them in a manner inspired by quipus. Each string was color coded to a building type, such as commercial or residential.
Each different type of knot was tied while telling the narrative of a certain building and indicated a data about that building, such as condition, utilities, or value.
The knotted string
The string was attached to the location on the highway where that particular building had existed.
hfdshslk h jfdsk fjsd fd s sdjf jlks fs ff sljsdjsf jslf jsj j fj f d j asj jdsa ja j jas asj s dfj jss sj asj j sjs sajsji ssdf f s sd fsid fs dfsd fd fds f jf dsfsj f fs fsdo s sj f df jo fs osd
The story was then continued below the handknit road surface where the process was continued with strings to narrate information about the people who had occupied that building with knotted data regarding number of people, racial identity and final destination of the displaced inhabitants.
The road was then returned to its starting
starting position, ready for the story of the next address was that was erased.