3/10/08 - This is the beginning

Just before I found the Sikh temple, my wife and I walked in to the park called, Margaret I. Carman Green or Weeping Beech Park.

One of artists of the Queens Museum of Art exhibition, Emmy Catedral is working on planting Beech trees, inspired by the 151-year-old weeping beech tree that was in this park until 1998 which, according the parks service, is the genetic root of every weeping beech tree in the United States. She is interested in planting the sapling on the grounds owned by each different religious organization. That reminded me of the Kaki Tree project conceived by Tatsuo Miyajima. (The project concept)
A Japanese persimmon tree that was irradiated by the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 managed to survive. One tree doctor decided to take cuttings from the original trees. Artist Miyajima, known for his LED light number sculptures, got interested in spreading the sapling through artistic activities involving whole communities. It's been ten years since the project began. Someday I would like to bring a sapling to this community.

I have been always interested in visiting historical sites and remains. Sometimes I visited actual, original historical buildings, and sometimes just statues of the event that happened there. It does not have to be monumental; I rather tend to feel closer to the place or event, myself, if it is unmonumental. For example, in the 60s or 70s, some group or city commemorated an historical site, yet it has not been taken care of well since then so that the new explanation plate itself is again almost rusty and feeling like it will disappear.

Whether or not the memorial objects - like statues, plaques, and the site ruins - are there
I feel the effort someone took to keep it there is something important.

I did not know about the Flushing Remonstrance until this show at the Queens Museum of Art. But, by knowing it by chance and coming to understand its importance, I now would like to share this information with more and more people through this project and the exhibition.

The Bowne House