1802 · Installation / Competition
Lifting the
Curtain
A landscape of memory: a familiar green surface lifts to reveal the fractured history beneath.
- Location
- Charlottesville, Virginia
- Year
- 2018
- Type
- Installation
- Status
- Competition proposal · BDA Prize
What lies
beneath.
Created for the 2018 BDA Prize, Lifting the Curtain responds to Vinegar Hill, the historically Black Charlottesville neighborhood demolished during 1960s urban renewal. The installation begins as a soft, sloped lawn—a place to sit, play, and gather—then lifts at one edge to expose unfinished marble blocks below.
The fractured stone represents lives uprooted and histories removed from the visible city. Embedded QR codes connect visitors to personal stories, extending the physical installation into an evolving archive.
Rather than standing apart as a conventional monument, the project works through everyday public space. Rest and reflection occupy the same ground, asking whose histories remain visible and what has been concealed beneath the familiar surface of the city.