Layered Lands is a public-facing installation of stylized faux minefields on uncontaminated land. The ‘landmines’ here are replaced by clear acrylic spheres with flowers. Designed to disrupt walkers of privileged spaces and temporalities, the spheres and flowers also mark a series of QR codes that link to stories of violent legacies in the local land, such as the takeover of indigenous lands and indigenous knowledge. It is designed so that the interactive elements can be reconfigured depending on where it is exhibited. The point here is to represent landscapes as layered—so that walkers can question the lack of ‘contamination’ in their public lands to inspire them to think about what they take for granted and to reflect on the global connectedness of their world.

Layered Lands was selected as part of the “Art on the Trails” at Beals Preserve in Southborough, MA for the Rising Up. Rising Up will be open from June 7 - September 13 2020. The landmines for the Beals Preserve will feature histories of the Nipmuc people, an indigenous people from Massachusetts who farmed and lived there during the colonial period and who currently live throughout New England.

For more about Art on the Trails and the selected artists for Rising Up see their website.

For more about the Nipmuc people and indigenous histories at the Southborough edition of Layered Lands, see the Landmine links under Layered Lands.

Further readings below:

Brooks, Lisa Tanya. Our beloved kin: a new history of King Philip's war. Yale University Press, 2018.

DeLucia, Christine M. Memory lands: King Philip’s War and the place of violence in the northeast. Yale University Press, 2018.

Our Beloved Kin Remapping Project by Lisa Brooks

Thanks to Felix M. Diaz and Rebecca Kastleman for their conversations and help.

Thanks to Custom Cuts on Etsy for the laser-etched minefield signs.