Unburial transforms the gallery into a secluded twilight garden where visitors are invited to reflect on the meaning of freedom. Centered on the loss of the Liberty Tree—a historic site of revolutionary organizing and resistance at St. John’s College—the installation creates a space for mourning, dialogue, and collective imagining. It asks: Who is truly free? Where can we be free? And how might we embody our freedom?
Live flowers emerge from the walls, while soft black mulch muffles the floor. Flags, symbols, and animated murals compose a multisensory landscape that encourages visitors to listen, reflect, and participate in intimate “whisper conversations.” Within this environment, absence becomes a site of learning, remembrance, and renewal.
The tulip tree serves as a living metaphor for forms of freedom rooted in interdependence, regeneration, resilience, and transformation. These principles of nature enter into dialogue with the canonical visual language of nation-state power and identity. Rather than treating the tree solely as a symbol of lost political freedom, Unburial approaches its absence as an invitation to imagine new possibilities: freedoms that can take root, flourish collectively, and reshape the future.
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Acknowledgments:
Peter Nesbett
Jenny CawoodJane Cox
Jake Trudeau
Dana Connett
Elizabeth Fox
Mary-Angela Hardwick
Keith Colston
Besan Khamis
Tyler Mitchell
Alison Gayne
Robert Dugarte
Timothy Waller
Tony Aquilino
Jack Warpinski
Brandon Kostinsky
Daniela Rivera
Scott Vogt
Juro Letovanec
Prince Apollo
Documentation:
Eduardo Fermin