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June 22, 2005
Irish Hunger Memorial
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Landscape is context, devoid of context, it can be disconcerting. Which is why the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City is so confusing. It's an exquisite bit of Irish landscape constructed on a sloping plinth at Vesey and North End Avenue. The half acre site which includes rocks from each of Ireland's 32 counties, features a meadow planted with (Irish) native grasses and wild flowers. It is set above a carefully reconstructed cottage, every stone of which was brought from County Mayo. It turns out to be surprisingly difficult to appreciate this beautiful Irish landscape in the context of downtown New York, Battery Park City and Hoboken - which is pretty much the view from the Memorial. The site becomes more thought provoking than pleasing. This is probably the point of artist Brian Tolle's piece. It is after all a memorial to "The Great Hunger" when a million and a half Irish died of starvation after the failure of the potato harvest in 1845-52 and millions were forced to emigrate, many to the United States. It also serves as a reminder of the continuing problem of hunger in the world today.
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There are two entrances to the memorial landscape; a path from Vesey Street and a more formal approach through the cottage. Last week the rough stone walls of the cottage were covered with briar rose, the grass smelt sweet in the meadow and the tragedy of leaving this rural paradise for the tenements of New York City was very real.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at June 22, 2005 10:45 PM