The people of earth. sky
By Robin Hazard Ray, Volunteer Docent and Jenny Gilbert, Director of Institutional Advancement
As summer turned to autumn, Cemetery docent Robin Hazard Ray( RHR) and Director of Institutional Advancement Jenny Gilbert( JG) talked with Roberto Mighty( RM), the first-ever Artist-in-Residence at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Typically, artists-in-residence receive backing from an institution, but the institution does not dictate what the artist will do or even expect a product at the end of the residency. Mighty’ s remarkable video project, earth. sky, is still in progress, but is already a work of great emotional and aesthetic depth.
Each personal story elaborated in earth. sky took lengthy interaction with both the subjects and the graves in the landscape. Locations were filmed in every season, from the perspective of the mourners and also that of the decedent him- or herself. The pieces are designed to be shown on five screens surrounding the viewer, creating an immersive experience. earth. sky currently consists of 35 pieces, with portraits of 16 individuals. This interview was edited for brevity.
Mighty first came to Mount Auburn when he was called in to do a video documentary of“ A Glimpse Beyond,” a site-specific celebration of music, dance, art, and poetry set within Mount Auburn’ s stunning landscape.
RM: I had just come from an 18-month project with the Harvard Forest, where I was their artist-in-residence. It was a historical project about Puritans and Native Americans in the 17th-century. Hot on the heels of that, this came up. [ I noticed ] that many of the names on the monuments were the same Puritan families I had studied. That was very striking because [ the founding of Mount Auburn ] was about 200 years later.
RHR: For earth. sky, how did you go about choosing the people you decided to portray?
RM: Like any National Historic Landmark, there’ s lots of attention paid [ at Mount Auburn ] to the famous people. But I’ ve always felt like an outsider everywhere I’ ve been, and I’ m fascinated by outsiders. So someone will say to me [ Henry Wadsworth ] Longfellow and Mary Baker Eddy, and I’ ll say,‘ Well, what about Smith? Where’ s Goldberg? That unmarked grave: who’ s that?’ A lot is made about the abolitionist predilections of the founders of Mount Auburn Cemetery. But I wondered, what if those people were alive today? What would that sentiment, that New England Transcendentalist, Congregational, post – Great Awakening mind-set, what would they be into now? Well, they’ d be into LGBT rights, the injustice of people not being able to
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