records development water construction erasure
installation aspiration and loss by vera frenkel
ONCE NEAR WATER: Notes from the Scaffolding Archive
(Transcript of voiceover)
I wasn’t ready for the terse death notice sent by her lawyer from her email address.
This report is about a lake, and about longing. Also about greed, and about ways of bearing witness. I don’t know the whole story, one never does.
Her name appeared first on a line by itself, followed by her address. Then the announcement signed by her lawyer:
But, in a tale told elsewhere, there’s a reliable account of how I met the scaffolding archivist.
“It is with regret that we inform you that the afore-named resident at the stated address has passed away. Death was confirmed at 7:43 PM EST Tuesday evening, cause unknown. This notice is being sent as a courtesy to all names in the address book of the deceased.” The envelope that arrived from the same lawyer’s office a week later contained a real letter, and a document combining images and words.These were clipped together and tagged by a note in her handwriting saying, ‘Notes from the scaffolding archive’.
I couldn’t know then, and still don’t know to this day, why she would choose me as her beneficiary. I have no experience with construction, nor with archives, for that matter. I want to make that clear before I hand over the material.
I realize that the Building Committee is entitled to whatever information I can provide.
Much has happened in the years since that first encounter near the yellow wall… Curious, and impatient for experience, I travelled. Calm, she stayed put and wrote her second book. I married – and divorced. Twice. A time-consuming activity. Ruth (… I’m calling her Ruth to ensure her anonymity) – Ruth remained steadfastly independent and continued gathering data in her chosen field and writing about it. Though we weren’t close, we did exchange postcards from time to time, and later on, the occasional quick email, always with the polite hope that we’d meet again. And so it went…
Seeing it, I hear her voice again.
I don’t think it dishonours the dead to quote them. There’s nothing in the letter or support document to be ashamed of. So, I’ll just read it to you. But first, for the Committee, a short summary of what Ruth was doing before she died: An anonymous archivist, passionate about destructive change in the city where she lives, comes to the end of a long recording vigil. Acknowledging the losses so carefully documented, the archivist passes on the only copy of the archive to a trusted associate.
On Site review 24
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