Inspired by The Plain of Jars, UNEARTHED suggests the weight of ancient and recorded history. It invites us to consider who lived before us and who will come after us. This accompanying soundscape attempts to capture the transience of lived experience and suggests how our shared spaces can be points of connection between individuals and communities across time.

UNEARTHED 2026-2027 is a sculptural installation at 145th street in Riverside Park in New York City. It consists of three steel forms inspired by The Plain of Jars - a vast landscape in Laos littered with 2,000 year old, 9 ft tall stone jars emerging from the ground at unexpected angles. 

For me, the Plain of Jars is such an apt metaphor for the inevitable and unexpected ways that history imposes itself on the present.  And it is a reminder that the world is littered with objects like these (albeit most of them a bit smaller), objects that have lost their meaning over time, waiting to fulfill a new purpose. Wherever we are, the ground beneath our feet is a repository for these objects.   

Much of my work is motivated by what these objects tell us about our origins as individuals and communities, and our preservation or rehabilitation of what we deem valuable centers our lived experience while simultaneously reflecting our respect for the past and hopes for the future. Either assumes a narrative that pre-dates and outlasts us.  The megalithic Laotian jars, the terra-cotta jars containing the Dead Sea Scrolls, Egyptian Canopic jars, African-American memory jars from the American south, the milk cans buried beneath the Warsaw Ghetto : They are breadcrumbs, helping us transcend ruptured timelines, dislocation, and loss to find connection in human experience. Most interesting for me though, are our interpretations of these origins - what our engagement with these objects (and our history) today tells us about who we are now and who we hope to be in the future.  

So UNEARTHED, an installation emerging from the ground on the banks of the Hudson River, over 8,000 miles from the megalithic stone jars in Laos, is a reminder that there is more to be discovered , buried beneath the surface - in our parks, in our neighborhoods, in our cities and beyond.  UNEARTHED provides a place to consider, celebrate, and find community with those who came before us: the Lenape, the European colonial farmers, 19th century Irish and Jewish immigrants, the African American community that fueled the Harlem Renaissance.  At a time during which history is often flattened and used to divide us, I hope that UNEARTHED can be a reminder that public lands have always been nexus points for an infinite number of narratives - yesterday, today and far into the future.

Unveiled on OCTOBER 1, 2026, UNEARTHED was made possible by the Art Students League of New York and the NYC Parks Department and was fabricated by Brandywine Valley Fabricators.