This anti-memorial project examines the various traumatic events that occurred in the year 1919 around the world- Treaty of Versailles, treaties of 1919 created the countries of the Middle East, Ireland’s war of independence began, Jallianwala Bagh Massacre at Amritsar, India on April 13, 1919, to name a few. The counter-memories embedded in these events create a rich archive from a transnational perspective. Using brass spittoons, I seek to make connections between such events of 1919. Discarded bodily waste (spit) functions as a metaphor for the events that a nation or people forget as if history were a cultural waste and was discarded. Each spittoon is etched with the name of an event, a map that states the location of the event, and several scrolls containing historical information about the event inscribed on the spittoon.
