Ford

Abstract

Ford is an attempt to record every organism that grows on a grave. I use a combination of observational drawing with quadrat data collection to direct the viewers eye to what I want them to notice in the form of a four-panel etching. The grave itself is a family plot in Ford Roman Catholic Cemetery, Bootle. There are 5 bodies within and countless growing from them. While drawing I try to take notice of each leaf, distinguishing each organism as unique but interconnected. Acknowledging the smallest details and lifeforms as worthy of attention. Noticing these details is a choice, every mark I record is a choice.

Looking and drawing are not a passive process, you engage in a dialogue with the subject, trying to see and record as much as you can. Similarly, prayer is not passive, you meditate on the spiritual concerns you have. ‘Ford’ is a communion with the life that is sustained by the grave.

I am influenced by a Catholic upbringing and the bodies in the grave were also Catholic. Catholic’s say masses for the dead to ease their souls through the afterlife, because of this the soul still exists in the collective consciousness of the parish and of those who knew them. The drawing, printing, and etching of the four-panels took 2 years, a period where I lived with the grave, drawing each day echoing a routine of evening prayer. The memory of those in the grave exist with me while I draw it and continue with every viewing of the prints.