+QUEEN CITY
Queen City (2023), a permanent public art installation in Arlington, Virginia, confronts the 1941 seizure of Black-owned land by the federal government for the construction of the Pentagon. Stepping inside the sculpture, viewers look up to see 903 vessels — handmade by contemporary Black ceramicists in the shape and color of drops of water. These pieces acknowledge and honor the individuals displaced from Queen City while creating a network of artists and craftspeople that metaphorically pick up the spirit of this fractured community.
+HEALING LANDSCPAES
Healing Landscapes (2024), a dual-sided, interactive public art sculpture in Astoria, Queens, invites viewers to engage with the complexities of ecological identity and its framing. Measuring 6.5 feet by 3.5 feet, this installation explores the legacy of struggles for economic, social, and environmental equality, translating these histories into contemporary understandings of biocultural diversity. Each side features ceramic tiles that serve as a modular canvas, allowing for shifting, altering, and transforming visual realities.
On side one, Ghetto Ecosystem presents a collection of images that challenge perceptions of urban environments—individual abstracted figures resembling dendrological forms, natural hairstyles within Black culture, and hair picks in fusion. On side two, Subtly Natural showcases the beauty of showcases the beauty of interweaving these elements–– the conglomerate, an abstracted (terra)form that is created within biodiversity. This imagery pays homage to the question of "invasive" species and celebrates the beauty that emerges from cultural fusion.
