Art
exhibit tells story of Eloise Cemetery
It's not easy
to find the Eloise Cemetery, nestled among some pine trees off Henry Ruff in
Westland's south end.
But somehow
Andrea Irwin did when a day trip to visit antique stores along Michigan Avenue
was short-circuited by a power outage.
When she saw
the cemetery, she immediately thought of her friend Martine MacDonald who, she
knew, was doing drawings of Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Wyandotte.
It led to a
conversation about their collaborating on an art project related to the
cemetery and ended up as a multi-media exhibit that opens later this month at
the Downriver Council for the Arts in Taylor.
"It was
like something out of the Twilight Zone; if the power hadn't gone out, I
wouldn't have gone there and I wouldn't have had a conversation with
Martine," Irwin said. "I feel some of those souls wanted their story
to be told."
The goal of the
exhibition is "to give some honor to these individuals who, when they were
alive, were marginalized," said MacDonald, the DCA gallery education
coordinator.
Titled
"Resurrected Voices: The Eloise Cemetery Project," the exhibition
will feature 40 pieces of original artwork, while the opening ceremony
Thursday, Oct. 19, will include poetry readings and music, also related to the
cemetery and those who were laid to rest there.
It's a
collaborative exhibit involving the DCA, the Artists Collective, Downriver
Poets and Playwrights, Friends of Eloise and the Wayne County Council for Arts,
History and Humanities.
MacDonald and
Irwin in April put out a call to artists to participate in the project. Artists
were asked to respond to individually numbered grave markers.
The group met
at the cemetery on four Saturdays in June through September, uncovering grave
markers and producing rubbings that could be used in the final work, which also
will help promote the efforts of the Friends of Eloise to restore and identify
the gravesites.
"It's a
very beautiful spot, but you'd never know you're in a cemetery," MacDonald
said. "There's only these four- by six-inch stones made out of cement.
Some are still standing, some have sunk into the ground."
More than 7,000
people are buried in numbered graves in the cemetery. They were all residents
of the Wayne County Infirmary, which became known as Eloise because of the name
selected when a post office was set up in the complex in 1894.
The artists
visited the Westland Historical Museum and Eloise Museum in the Kay Beard
Building, one of the complex's last remaining structures, and looked over the
death certificates of Eloise residents buried in the numbered graves in
preparation for the show.
"We wanted
to know how they lived, who was represented by the marker," MacDonald
said.
Jo Johnson, a
member of Friends of Eloise, worked with the two women and admits she wondered
how they were going to pull off the multi-media show.
"I was
puzzled how it would work out, but it looks like it's all coming
together," she said. "Now, it's exciting, a wonderful idea. They so
dedicated."
Johnson plans
to be at the opening ceremony and will bring Eloise history books and notecards
to sell. The money will help further the work of the Friends of Eloise which
just sent in the money to purchase a historical marker for the site.
MacDonald's
artwork honors two young girls, both age 6, who died within days of each other
in 1924. One died of cholera, the other from complications of emphysema.
She's using
vintage paper dolls from the 1920s for the piece, which will be the width of
the grave markers, but instead of six inches long, it'll be more like two feet.
Irwin is
honoring Bitty Hughes, the first mental patient at the hospital. Described as
simple-minded, she was placed at the hospital by her family when she was in her
30s.
"She
believed everything she saw was hers," Irwin said.
Irwin has been
working on her piece all summer. She focused on Hughes' face and her artwork is
reminiscent of an Andy Warhol piece -- four panels each in a different color.
Hughes worked in the kitchen so Irwin will have forks, knives and spoons dangle
from the portraits on cords matching the color of the piece.
On opening
night, the DCA gallery will be open 5-9 p.m. The reception will start in the
gallery, then shift at 7:30 p.m. to another building on campus for the music
and poetry readings.
Since the music
and poetry are only part of the opening night ceremony, copies of the poems
will be included in a notebook that people will be able to read and there also
will be tape recording so they can listen to what was said opening night.
The opening
ceremony also will include an outdoor display of luminaries decorated by
members of the community. They will light the walk from the gallery to the WCCC
building, where the poetry readings and musical performances will take place.
After Oct. 9, the luminaries will be moved inside and become a part of the
exhibition.
"Anyone
can put out a luminary, we're hoping to light 300-500 on opening night,"
Martine said. "We're also praying to the weather goddess to have no
rain."
smason@hometownlife.com | (734)
953-2112
Originally
published October 1, 2006
PHOTOS BY TOM HAWLEY | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Artists
Andrea Irwin and Martine MacDonald show off one of four Andy Warhol style
paintings Irwin has done as part of the Downriver Council for the Arts exhibit,
"Resurrected Voices: The Eloise Cemetery Project." The two women
are curators of a multi-media exhibit that honors the more than 7,000 people
buried in the cemetery.
A
participating artist placed a flower near one of the graves in the Eloise
Cemetery to paint for the show.