Dead Horse Bay, located in southern Brooklyn, was once a little commune comprised of a few hundred people that lived and worked at the animal and refuse processing plants that dotted its shores in the late 1800s. As transportation shifted from horse and buggy to automobile in the early 20th century, most of these businesses dried up or moved elsewhere. Those residents that remained were met with Robert Moses' infamous campaign of land acquisition in the 1950s. With little to no regulation in place to protect low income families, most residents were forced out of their homes and businesses, leaving the area to be leveled and quickly covered with trash. Today, what remains at the beach is a weathering mass of shoes, bottles, clothing, silverware, and countless other banal artifacts strewn across the sand. It offers an honest and sometimes dark glimpse into the lives of those displaced here through the disposable objects that they left behind.
Forgotten Candles pays homage to these nameless few who kept New York chugging along. Each bottle has been thoughtfully collected at Dead Horse Bay and painstakingly sanitized in Bushwick, NY. In collaboration with an expert scent designer from P.F. Candles, familiar yet hard-to-place scents find their remembered home in these old cosmetic jars. When lit, opaque milk glass lets off a brilliant glow, and when your jar is empty, we hope you throw a simple tealight back in and enjoy the magic of your candle over and over again.
