Battle of Crater: Betrayal

A Eulogy

This installation features projections, lighting, and a mimicking of historical objects to tell a story about three Civil War soldiers, brothers John, Benjamin, and Henry Niles, three of the eleven children of the former homeowners Abraham and Harriet Niles. This piece seeks to express the impression of the blurred boundary of citizen or exile, the complex and fraught existence of Black Civil War soldier, the phoenix that rose between enslavement and annihilation. John & Benjamin fought in the war during the Battle of Crater. When Confederate forces overwhelmed the Union soldiers, Black troops were brought in to save the weakening Confederate army. Those Black troops fought valiantly to defeat the Union at the Battle of Crater, only to be fired upon by their fellow white Confederate soldiers on the battlefield, a deep betrayal, Black souls that are mourned within this installation.

Solo Installation:

A Slower Oncology

Re-Site Project