IBe Crawley

Unknown: A Funerary Brier

The nesting boxes are dwellings- first the water, then soil and finally the archive. A circle formed by black eyed peas are all ring shouts dancing around the coffin, in the tradition of enslaved African people. The broken fish skeleton replaces the chicken bones found surrounding the child’s coffin of 1769, found buried beneath the floor boards, of the room shared by an enslaved family.

There is a vulnerability in the material, the stitched handmade and indigo dyed paper. Similar to the Ruins produced by Beverly Buchanan, this funerary bier titled Unknown is a sculpture. Unknown represents the ongoing ritual of burial and the celebration of life common in the Black community, perhaps other communities as well.

The materials interact intentionally, the presence of death- the spirit outside of the body, yet still in transition to its final resting place is central to grief and release. The living humans- those whose breath/spirit is contained within their bodies, they are required to make the final arrangements.

The narrative is hand-printed on handmade paper stitches the events, as the ‘arrangements’ order the spirit of the dead before rest. The spirit is impermanent and refusal to leave until a space has been cleared for its movement. This sculpture is about closure.