laurencunninghamart.com

Graveside Performance
2009
Site-specific performance with musical composition by Mario Silva
Coile Cemetery, Hull, Georgia

This performance was reminiscent of a funeral but with a focus on the living. A gravesite was lined with six black pedestals, three on each side. Each pedestal was topped with a bucket full of water. Also on-site were two violinists dressed in black. During the performance, they played the common dirge, Ave Maria, simultaneously forwards and backwards. Meanwhile, the artist created two holes in each bucket so that they appeared to weep upon the grave. Thus, as the music was simultaneously played and rewound, inanimate buckets came alive by crying, and a ceremony about death became a celebration of life.