OBITUARIES - INSERT YOUR NAME HERE
Obituaries - Insert Your Name Here confronts the inevitability of death through a stark reimagining of obituary pages as physical installations. The transparent panels, inscribed with text and photographs, rest directly on the grass, creating the impression of gravestones or memorial markers laid out along a burial ground. By situating obituaries outside of newspapers and into the landscape, the piece demands that viewers literally walk among the narratives of death, positioning themselves within the continuum of memory, loss, and commemoration. The title’s invitation to "insert your name here" collapses the distance between the viewer and the subject, reminding us that obituaries are not abstract records but eventual destinies shared by all. In this recontextualization, the work critiques how American culture often seeks to avoid direct confrontation with mortality. Newspapers once served as public archives of death, linking community and history through the ritual of the obituary. Here, the placement of these texts in a physical path echoes both the design of garden cemeteries, where walking among memorials was encouraged, and the symbolic journey each person must take toward death. The transparent panels, reflecting the sky and ground, suggest the fragile boundary between life and death, presence and absence. By blending image, text, and environment, Obituaries - Insert Your Name Here transforms the obituary from a private notice into a collective mirror, urging viewers to reflect on how remembrance functions not just for the dead but also for the living who will one day join them.












