Artist Statement

This is an installation titled “Spirits of the Underground Railroad” created for Peekskill Project 2005. In front of a house known to be a site on the Underground Railroad, I installed 2 “bottle trees” and a fabric shadow of a running man. Bottle trees are a tradition in the Deep South. Evil spirits are believed to be captured in the upside-down bottles.  In this installation, the bottles are open and facing up to release the kind and caring spirits of agents on the Underground Railroad: those who aided escaping slaves in the 1800’s. A label on each bottle bears the name of an URR conductor.