Over and Below

In this series I intend to draw parallels with another time in American history where we were similarly fractured, the Civil War. The duality implied in the title is intentional. Over and Below can refer to physicality, being on top or physically divided from another thing; north/south, life/death, head stones/dead bodies, catastrophic/serene. In language the term over also indicates the conclusion of something and below can refer to being hidden beneath something either literally or metaphorically. Arlington National cemetery pictured above in both pieces was initially created to contain the remains of soldiers who fought for the north but is ironically (very much intentionally so) on the grounds of a plantation once owned by Mary Anna Custis Lee, the wife of General Robert E. Lee a celebrated southern military hero. The bodies come from photographic references acquired from the Library of Congress mostly feature confederate soldiers, underneath the headstones of union soldiers.