-Becker, H. S. (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press. Aesthetics,
Aestheticians, and Critics and Reputation.
- The discussion of aesthetics is key. People’s aesthetics and the aesthetics of the culture and time are shown in headstones and layouts of cemeteries.
- Another interesting concept of aesthetics of the cemetery as art, is that many would see this as morbid. How is death and is memorialization beautiful? It truly depends on who is looking. I see cemeteries as an art world because of my personal experiences and learning within a graveyard as my context.
- The concept of an “art world” is also vastly important.
- To define cemeteries as an “art world” is to call various parts of them art. Headstones are art, copings are art, landscaping, horticulture, architecture in cemeteries are art
-Ivey, B. A cultural bill of rights. Adapted Ivey, B. (2008). Arts, inc: How greed and neglect have destroyed our cultural rights. University of California. A CULTURAL BILL OF RIGHTS
- For this project the most important “Right” is the first one; Heritage.
- “The right to engage those unique artistic traditions that define us as families, communities, ethnicities, nationalities, and regions. And, the right to explore and audition the cultural heritage of others, to observe and accept difference through the expressive lives of those unlike ourselves, including people of other nations.”
- Headstones and copings are and explorations of a tradition (marking where we are buried as an important place). They express out religions, our lives, nationalities, cultures, and artistic preferences.
-Williams, R. (2000). Culture is ordinary. In G.Bradford & G. Wallach (Eds), The politics of culture: Policy perspectives for individuals, institutions, and communities (pp. 16-19). New York, NY: The New Press.
- Cemeteries are an “ordinary” part of culture. Almost all of us have been to one, all of us have been to funerals or have known a family member to die.
- While this can be viewed as a “normal” part of society, it is still viewed as an odd place to go unless you are actively mourning a loved one.
- But, it is also an integral place to local and family histories.
–Cultural renaissance or cultural divide? The Chronicle of Higher Education. Bill Ivey and Steven J. Tepper (2006)
- The beginning of the article mentions that art can be very grounded in location. Where you come from, where you currently live, the culture involved, all effect the type of art around you or the type of art you create.
- Applying this idea, of locality and culture influencing art, to graveyards and specifically headstones is obvious. People’s headstones are memorials to them and their lives. They may reflect their culture (having symbols or themes from their heritage), show how they lived their lives (inscriptions saying “loving friend, mother, brother, sister, teacher…”). It also generally shows someone’s artistic tastes, those who pick out their markers prior to death and picking those most aesthetically pleasing to them, that they think best represents them.