I want visitors to truly re-assess whether or not we have actually ascended above the principles of slavery, or if we have just disassembled the establishment but the story remains in other forms. The provocation I would like to bring forth with my installation is one that reveals how victims have overcome the hardships they were forced into, as well as expose the current story of hardships still to be faced in our progressive society to truly achieve equality among all beings. Installation Construction At the entrance of the installation, a channel of water flows forth from a plaque indicating that this flow of water is a representation of hope. The channel proceeds down the length of the installation to a collecting pool at the bottom where there is a memorial pool for those who have suffered as a result of slavery. Sitting in this channel are freely rotating panels that, similar to the channel of water, proceed down the length of the installation. At entrance level, the panel is prominently standing. With each step farther down into the installation, the panel drops into the landscape down to the memorial pool at the end. Each panel is placed atop a zero gravity rotating pivot to allow for easy rotation in any direction. Each panel will be placed within a smaller proximity than the width of each panel to ensure that as each rotates, they will collide with one another. The composition of each panel is to be made of concrete, wood, and steel which are left bare to the elements of nature. As the installation ages, so will each panel. As wood warps and deforms, steel letters embedded in the wood will pop off revealing the stain left from years of weathering. Rust from steel will color the concrete. In conjunction with aging, impacts from the collision of two panels will cause noticeable aesthetic damage. Gouges in wood, splintered wood from collisions, rotting wood, scratches on steel, and even chipping of concrete are expected on each panel as it matures. The progression into the landscape is to be lined with a stone retaining wall as to provide protection from ambient sounds as well as amplify the impacting of panels on one another. As you get to the lowest part of the installation where the memorial pool is, most ambient noise should be blocked out further enhancing the audible noise made by each panel as it creeks with age and crashes into ones beside it. At night, lights placed in the water channel will cast up to illuminate each panel. This provides an ambience as night making the site glow from afar as well as provides soft lighting that interacts upon each panel surface giving depth and dynamic. The installation is not site specific. The only conditions of the installation are as follows: 1. It be a Universal Design. 2. The slope of the land is to be no greater than 1:20 to be considered as landscape for the mobility impaired. 3. The wind patterns of the site are investigated to determine installation orientation. Manifesto Investigation Within these panels comes the investigation of whether or not the issues behind slavery have been resolved. To provoke such questions, I think it is necessary to dismiss the element of time in light of the fact that many people can easily dismiss thoughts based on the knowledge of it being past tense. To do this, my installation represents the issues as they relate to slavery on individual basis. Each “panel” would be a mix of quotes and factual numerical data, all written with complete anonymity (no citation to given to who is being quoted because a person’s lifetime, also is informative of time). This lack of time provokes the thoughts of considering present conditions versus knowledge of past ones, thus further inviting opportunity for conversations personal and public.