Shattered Memories - Emily Ziegler
As part of an undergraduate internship at Columbia University (designed and led by Dr Jeff Benjamin), Emily Ziegler was asked to respond artistically to artifacts from excavations that had taken place in Rosendale, New York. One of the artifacts was a salt-glazed pottery shard. Emily felt an instant connection to it. The pull of the object led to a photo series in which Emily incorporated the shard into a flower crown. Emily explains her actions in this way.
“One of the reasons I made a flower crown was an inspiration from the venok (wreaths) of Slavic cultures as well as from headdresses of Turkic and Caucasian societies. I have always found fascination in how different flowers, colors, metal plates, and designs represent different aspects of people’s social statuses, as well as in representing different regions. The plants I chose for the crown relate directly to the artifact and its origin; these flowers are native to Ulster County in New York State, where the excavation took place.
“In addition to venok and Turkic and Caucasian headpieces, I found further inspiration in the image of Mother Earth taking over things. This shard had ended up in the ground, most likely as trash. With time, Mother Earth took control: covering it, growing around it, taking it back into the ground, and making it a part of herself. The headpiece I made represents both Mother Earth’s taking back the object and the supremacy of nature to outlast human creation.
“As I worked on weaving the flowers into a crown, I tried to imagine the stages of the pottery vessel’s life. Did the pot belong to a family? If so, then what kind of family was it? A happy one? How did the pot end up in this family? Was it a wedding present? Did someone buy it at a market? What significance might it have had for that family? Was it of sentimental value, perhaps a symbol of a marriage and a life together? Was it of monetary value? How did the pot break? Was it accidentally knocked to the ground? Was it thrown by a husband at his wife? How did the shard end up in the ground?
“Through my work, the shard is an artifact-turned-into-art; a piece of broken trash becomes beautiful. It is a renaissance. Though we will never know for certain the life of the original pottery vessel and the emotional entanglements it carried (or the associated potential histories and emotions), I tried to evoke that potential in the series of photographs I made: heartbreak, endurance, ferocity.
“In my mind, I could see a young couple. Perhaps immigrants from Germany (many German immigrants came to Rosendale in the mid-late 1800s). I see them married and happy: the vessel as a wedding present. I also see them with a child. The father may have worked as a cooper, making barrels for the local cement trade. The child may have worked in the cement mines. One day, the child didn’t come home: a not untypical mining accident taking a family’s joy. In anguish, in fighting, in grief, the pot was smashed. Although this story may be far from accurate history, it highlights the power of objects and their importance to people. Objects hold emotions; my creative narrative vignette can bring emotion and humanity back to an object that many may see as cold and unliving.
“One of my inspirations for this photo series has been Polina Osipova (@polinatammi on Instagram), an artist whose work raises awareness of Chuvash culture and history. Chuvash is an endangered language of the Chuvash who are, an ethnic group in Russia. Artists like Polina Osipova and the singer Koledova have breathed new life into Chuvash culture. Despite the ever-increasing homogenization and modernization of cultures, Chuvash remains strong and vivid against its otherwise cultural disappearance. This level of cultural persistence inspired me to work with this pot shard in the way that I did. This artifact has a life, and despite being broken and tossed away as trash, it has survived. It has stories to tell.
“This pot shard has resisted being disappeared. It has wound up in my hands to tell its story. The people of the company town of Rosendale are gone, but the materials they left behind contain their stories. That pot belonged to living, breathing people with vibrant experiences, emotions, and stories. The pot shard is a syllable in the novel of their life. I hope that my work brings the people back into their stories, that it brings humanity back into the, otherwise, cold objects locked away in museum cases.
Emily Ziegler is double majoring in History and Russian Languages at St. Olaf College, Minnesota.
For more information about Creative Visualization in Archaeology, the internship led by Dr Benjamin, please contact him directly (jlb2289@columbia.edu).
