© Alan McCord

Claiming Sacred Space

In conjunction with the 2012 CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto, this series of images is my attempt to explore the festival theme “Public”.

Spacial arrangements, the landscape, can change in a variety of ways (formal and informal) and at a varying pace (natural and accelerated).  Our cultural values are written on the land.

Formally, cemeteries are the spacial manifestation of our desire to remember loved ones who have passed away.

Informally, the specific area (e.g. accident site) where someone passed away may be of great importance to mourners. A type of landscaping occurs where the functional space is re-written by marking the location with a memorial.  The informal memorial location is what many consider to be another type of ‘sacred space’ – an area outside those formal sacred spaces our culture identifies for that functional use.  This vernacular landscape can become contested.

And, as per the Festival theme’s statement, “the works presented challenge the distinctions between our private lives and the public sphere”.

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Contested Space - This memorial, created in the fall of 2011 for a 27-year-old man who was killed in a motorcycle crash, became contentious a few months later when the relatives of the deceased noticed the memorial items were being removed from the scene.
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Contested Space II - After repeated removals by members of the public, the deceased's loved ones, after verifying with the local municipality that it complied with the Town's roadside memorial policy, installed a metal cross with a concrete base - a more formal manifestation of vernacular landscaping on public space.
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Rhode Island Cemetery - A traditional cemetery provides an example of the formal management of a space designated as sacred.
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Designation - Here, an old farm field is functionally changed to a more formal sacred space.
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Designation II - The town's older cemetery was nearing capacity so they acquired this - previously private - land and allocated it for a new public burial site.
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Wreath - Informal memorials are often marked simply by small crosses or wreaths.
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17th Sideroad Memorial - Here, in 1999, three young men (two aged 19 and one aged 20) were killed when the car they were in left the road at the crest of a hill during the night. They were trying to avoid horses that had gotten loose and wandered onto the road.
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Local Policies - Looking to address concerns arising over vernacular landscaping occurring with greater frequency on public space, Municipalities have started to adopt 'roadside memorial policies'.
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Bus Stop Memorial - In 2007, a 16 year old boy was swarmed and stabbed to death by four young men looking to steal his cell phone. The concrete pad is a public transit stop where commuters are reminded of the tragedy.
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Guardrail - a new metal guardrail replaces the older wooden post and cable style.
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Plastic Plants - Exposure to the elements means plastic flowers are often better able to weather the passage of time.
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Paramedics Lost - This memorial marks the location where a pair of first responders died when their ambulance left the road along a winding section of road on Oct. 19, 2010.
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30 Trains a Day - at this level train crossing three teens were killed when their car was hit by a train in September 2000. Nine months earlier, a dump truck driver had died at the same crossing when his vehicle was struck by an Amtrack train. The crossing had lights prior to these incidents; however, there were no gates. Transport Canada determines if safety gates should be installed at level crossings. It's up to local governments to make a formal application for funding for safety gates. Transport Canada then determines whether the crossing meets the criteria which include volume and speed of trains and vehicles, the number of tracks, sight lines, other distracting factors and history of accidents at that location. At the time, gates would cost about $250,000
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Gas Station - This memorial is for two young women (sisters, aged 19 and 23) who were killed by a dump truck in 2007 when they were trying to make a left turn at an intersection.
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Rural Routes - claiming sacred space