Tomb Fragments Towers

After learning about the deathly history of south Lincoln Park through the Hidden Truths project, I started looking more closely at the ground, the roads, the trees, and the people in the park. I imagined all sorts of possible resting (and restive) places for bygone Chicagoans. Along one path near N. Clark St. and Wisconsin St. I saw a scattered assortment of very old fragments of stone and concrete. Some still had remnants of decorative carvings, possibly part of a cornice or other adornment to a tomb or monument long since crumbled and forgotten. I wondered if these had just been dug up in a recent lawn improvement or path repaving, or if they had simply been sitting there where I found them for a hundred and fifty years. I wondered how many people like me had passed by them...if any of those people could have been related to the people whose monument these fragments once were. To whom do those rocks belong? I circled back by the rocks on my way home, and on an impulse, stacked them up in two towers, making new memorials to the unknown, unknowable past they lived. The lawn suddenly looked different. It was more peaceful, more settled. I hope more people find meaning now in the short stacks of old rocks as they walk around, breathing in the crisp air of autumn, alive and un-haunted by the ghosts of Lincoln Park. For now.

Hidden Truths

Hidden Truths is a two-part project by artist Pamela Bannos, including site-specific and web-based components. It was funded by Northwestern University, where Bannos is a senior lecturer in the Department of Art Theory and Practice. She recently did extensive research into the history of the southern section of Lincoln Park, which is the site of the now defunct Chicago City Cemetery and the Catholic Cemetery. In the 1850s-60s the city resolved to cease interments along the lake shore, move the existing burials to "suburban" plots (now Rosehill, Graceland and Oak Woods Cemeteries) and establish a park, renamed in 1865 in memory of recently assassinated Lincoln. There are several of these painted aluminum signs around the park, commemorating historical figures and events surrounding the cemetery sites. Please check out the Hidden Truths website for tons of interesting information, interviews and images of all the signs, maps, and much more... After seeing two of the signs and reading all about the project on the website, my understanding of the park has profoundly changed. As it turns out, not all the skeletal remains of people buried in what is now Lincoln Park were removed. In fact, many remains have been found over the years in various phases of construction and renovation of the park grounds, the Chicago History Museum and the surrounding neighborhood. The awareness of this history, and of the possibility of human remains beneath my feet as I casually stroll through the park imbues my walk with a new sense of poignancy. The pristine green lawns and lush landscaping are nourished by lives long decayed and forgotten. The back yard of the city's elite still has secrets skeletons to reveal, and stories to tell. In honor of those stories, I'll dedicate my next few entries to those who remain below the ground as I focus on more public sculpture in Lincoln Park.