Freddie Mercury died at his home, Garden Lodge, London, on the 24th of November 1991 after a tragic fight with AIDS. Shortly after, a public tussle broke out with the creation and destruction of a fan made mural, on the Lodge’s increasingly fortified Bulwark. The perfectly valid decision to avoid vandalism and desecration by keeping his burial site a secret, left fans without a headstone upon which to grieve. With no physical boundaries, mystery prevailed.

Disparate theories of Mercury’s final resting place were crafted; from a Cherry tree within the grounds of Garden Lodge to Lake Geneva, Switzerland to his birthplace in Zanzibar. The absence left in Mercury’s wake had become a contested space- No longer were we searching for truth but attempting to own an otherworldly piece of an icon, lover, friend and bandmate.

This project saw the production of a user specific periscope. A tool used in a site specific performance, allowing a covert glimpse of -in my opinion- Freddie Mercury’s most probable burial site, the base of the Cherry Tree at Garden lodge. Within the experiential work, The performer explores this unknowable space, forming an entirely personal counter secret.