Abstract
An introduction to the genre of monumental gravesites and tombs conceived and built by self-taught creators of art environments for their own eventual personal use, illustrated through a presentation of the constructed final resting places of six artist-builders. This article distinguishes these unique constructions from more traditional gravesites that evidence communally recognized motifs and symbols with forms and components that fall within standard parameters. In contrast to these more typical manifestations, the studied genre is both much less widespread and much more idiosyncratic and reveals a more personal expression of what the builder hopes to encounter in the “beyond,” as well as how they want to interpret what they leave behind. Because the majority of these structures are installed in private spaces, studies of heritage tombs and cemeteries have little resonance. Likewise, due to the lack of connection or communication between these artists, it is impossible to posit a thread of confluence that unites these structures in a way that would provide a more generalized understanding of the meaning of life and death or the import of one’s journey through the world held by art-environment builders. It is, however, safe to assume that one of their ultimate goals is to have their physical works function as a trigger to bring them a measure of immortality.
Highlights
Marking a death, the final and one of the most important of life’s “rites of passage” identified in 1909 by folklorist Arnold van Gennep[2], provides a compelling opportunity to explore the intersectionality of personal identity with social identity
The creation of monumental tombs and grave markers by those who will themselves inhabit those same spaces is both much less widespread and much more idiosyncratic, and reveals a more intimate expression of what the builder hopes to encounter in the “beyond”, as well as how they want to interpret what they leave behind. Unlike those more culturally-motivated expressions that fall within well-recognized boundaries, there is no way to predict their shape or components, to assume that their symbols will be understood by the community, or to compare similarities and differences between these unique visual representations: both the built structure and the decoration of each tomb is as unique as the artist-builder him/herself
Replete with personal symbols that were graphically emphasized by painting automobile oil into the crevices left by his hand chisels, his “Tomba Faraònica [Pharaonic tomb]”, despite its lack of visual relationship to either the shape or the motifs utilized in those faraway Egyptian monuments; it is likely that he conceptualized his engraved motifs as hieroglyphics
Summary
The final and one of the most important of life’s “rites of passage” identified in 1909 by folklorist Arnold van Gennep[2], provides a compelling opportunity to explore the intersectionality of personal identity with social identity. The creation of monumental tombs and grave markers by those who will themselves inhabit those same spaces is both much less widespread and much more idiosyncratic, and reveals a more intimate expression of what the builder hopes to encounter in the “beyond”, as well as how they want to interpret what they leave behind Unlike those more culturally-motivated expressions that fall within well-recognized boundaries, there is no way to predict their shape or components, to assume that their symbols will be understood by the community, or to compare similarities and differences between these unique visual representations: both the built structure and the decoration of each tomb is as unique as the artist-builder him/herself. This essay, will not attempt to reduce the distinctiveness of this genre to common forms, but will introduce and celebrate the exceptionality of each creator, describing and interpreting the final abodes of six exemplary builders
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