archaeography

Words of farewell written in spray-paint on the side of a house. The house left abandoned. This house one of many in a small beach community near Warwick, RI; all of which have been deserted.

The houses have been abandoned because the owner of the land is a businessman – the amusement park business no less (now that is bitter irony). He has gone into bankruptcy and had to relinquish the property. Rocky Point Amusement Park’s rides were sold off; the park stands an inhospitable ruin. All the residents of Rocky Beach were forced to leave their homes. A once a brightly-colored seaside community is now a tangle of run-down, abandoned houses.

A scar on the landscape. The city government and officials put up fences and signs in order to indicate that the place should not be accessible or accessed. Barriers were erected (fences, ‘no trespassing’ signs, police surveillance) in order to establish a separation between the damaged place and the healthy, living ones around it. However, unlike scar tissue which is impermeable and irreversible, these scars in the landscape can be punctured, engaged with, and ultimately reappropriated.

The windows are shattered, the shutters askew. The Rhode Island SWAT team now uses Rocky Beach as a training ground. Although engaged in a different set of relations with different associations, this place is one of continuous and sustained interaction.