Silence Prevails: East Village Community Gardens During the Pandemic 2020

Is it possible to hear the sounds of the past?

“The following is a record of what I heard and saw (and possibly experienced with sense beyond the usual five) during my explorations of East Village community gardens between April and August 2020.” – Text, lower left.

This rather Spartan map covers portions of New York City’s East Village and Lower East Side. A sketched street plan is overlaid with numerous patches of green (parks and outdoor spaces), two dozen of which are described in some detail in the accompanying text. The area represents the author’s personal research on New York’s community gardens during the global COVID-19 pandemic. What began as an effort to document the diverse sights and sounds of these ‘oases of greenery’ transformed somewhat after the city locked down.

Written in Japanese by Aki Onda, with translation by Colin Smith and design by Tadao Kawamura. Produced by Arts Maebashi for the exhibit “Listening: Resonant Worlds.”

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