OUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BOROUGH OF KINGS
ART LIFE SPAN: “Arrivals + Departures” is on view outside Borough Hall at Joralemon Street
COURIER LIFE, MAR. 26-APR. 1, 2021 21
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A new interactive art installation
outside Borough Hall in Downtown
Brooklyn pays tribute to the living and
the dead by featuring a pair of kiosks
denoting “Arrivals” and “Departures”
— allowing onlookers to see a everchanging
list of names, along with the
date of their birth or death, said one of
the artists behind the project.
“All of us who are viewing the work
have arrived and we’ve made that fi rst
step, and then there’s the journey in
between the two boards that we’re
all currently on,” said Davina Drummond,
who created the “Arrivals + Departures”
exhibit with fellow artist
Yara El-Sherbini under the moniker
YARA+DAVINA.
The public can submit names of
someone dead or alive — which can
include anyone from a loved one to
a famous historical fi gure — via the
project’s website, which will then be
displayed for at least seven minutes on
the boards resembling panels at airports
or train stations.
“The public gets to choose whose
name is on there, your grannie, your
baby brother, or a political activist you
love, or a scientist, or an amazing jazz
musician — but you get to choose,” El-
Sherbini said.
Submissions can also include a
story about the person, and the entries
will be displayed on the website after
they are no longer on the mechanical
boards, and beyond the installation’s
end date on April 11.
While the artwork debuted in London
last fall, and came to America’s
Downtown as part of the Brooklyn
Academy of Music’s spring programming,
the artists originally conceived
of the project fi ve years ago as a general
meditation on life and death, and
who gets commemorated in public
spaces — but it has taken on a new urgency
amid the COVID-19 pandemic
and the summer protests against police
killings of Black people.
“There was George Floyd and Breonna
Taylor and this absolute upstart
in people saying, ‘Say my name,’ and
all of a sudden we had this work asking
for names to be said and announced,”
said El-Sherbini. “It was about creating
a piece of public art that was actually
created by the public and for the
public and actually refl ected the public.”
Submissions also became a touching
way to celebrate newborn children
and honor the dead this year, as people
avoid holding in-person tributes, according
to Drummond.
“People have not been able to go to
funerals and they haven’t been able
to go to celebrations of babies being
born,” the artist said. “People have
been using the boards to mark those
people they didn’t get to say goodbye
to in really powerful ways and really
honest genuine ways.”
BAM will also host a virtual conversation
about the artwork on March
23 exploring the power of naming in
public sculptures and memorials.
Entrances
& exits
Art installation
honors life and
death at Boro Hall
“Arrivals + Departures” at Borough
Hall 290 Joralemon St., between Court
Street and Boerum Place in Downtown
Brooklyn, www.yaraanddavina.com
or www.bam.org/arrivals-departures.
Open March 14-April 11, all day. Free.
Submit names at www.arrivalsanddepartures.
net.
“The Power of Naming” at Brooklyn
Academy of Music virtual, RSVP at
www.bam.org/onstage.aspx March 23
at 12:30 pm. Free.
through April 11. Photo by Sam Polcer
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