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Art installation brings new life to Victorian cemetery

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The “Jewish forefathers of Liverpool” have been remembered this week as part of an installation put up in a disused Victorian cemetery by a local Jewish artist.

It was last October that Robyn Woolston first displayed Shadow / Light /Reprise in Deane Road Cemetery, an Orthodox burial ground last used more than 80 years ago.

The installation involves 124 flickering lights placed in the cemetery after nightfall, with passers-by encouraged to stop and contemplate them in silence

She brought the installation back to the site this week as part of the Independents Biennial, a branch of Liverpool’s world-renowned celebration of art.

The last burial at Deane Road took place in 1929 and for decades it lay derelict, until a committee began restoring it, starting repair work on broken stones and developing a garden area for visitors.

In 2010 restoration was given a boost by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which awarded £494,000 to the project.

Ms Woolston, who was recently awarded the Liverpool Art Prize, said that she chose the cemetery because it was “such a rich space in terms of the culture and history of the city”, as the last resting place of many of Liverpool’s prominent Jewish businessmen.

Among those buried at Deane Road are a baroness, wealthy bankers and the family of jewellers H Samuel.

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