On November 1st, 2020, as part of Green-Wood Cemetery's Day of the Dead celebrations, Iván Sikic spent four hours cleaning and tending to the graves of immigrants from the Global South who were buried in Green-Wood Cemetery's Public Lot 14964 during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
After cleaning and caring for each grave, the artist said the names of the deceased out loud, as Tariq Allen, a Brooklyn based trumpet player, performed jazz funeral tunes to accompany the ritual.
Through 'Conscious Oblivion', Sikic aimed to pay tribute to the life, labor, and sacrifices of generations of immigrant communities who now rest at Green-Wood.