Memorial Time: Claudia Rankine, C. D. Wright, and the Temporal Space of Remembrance

Abstract

Media representations of violence in the twenty-first century often point toward a clear narrative resolution, a move likewise reflected in large-scale, state-sanctioned memorials to the victims of such violence. However, memorials also contain the potential to respond in more immediate ways, disrupting narrative closure and refashioning the relationships among viewer, violence, and time. Using the space of the page and the form of the photograph, Claudia Rankine, C.D. Wright, and Amy Berbert produce alternative temporal relationships to violence, decoupling its remembrance from the place in which it occurred. In doing so, these artists create memorial encounters that are portable, allowing viewers and readers to engage from any location through book publication and social media dissemination. By decentralizing the memorial from the site of violence, these examples radically insist on our participation and our acknowledgement that the future is yet to be inscribed.