Outdoors | Visual Art
Arrivals + Departures
Brooklyn Borough Hall
209 Joralemon St, Brooklyn, NY
Performance dates are highlighted in white.
By YARA + DAVINA
During a period of incredible loss, as we enter a more hopeful spring, this public art installation pays tribute to people—both those entering the world and leaving it. Taking the recognizable form of a train station or airport arrivals and departures board, the public are invited to share names of people to the boards as a way of celebrating a birth (arrivals), honoring someone living, or commemorating a death (departures).
Created by British social practice artist duo Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond, the US premiere of Arrivals + Departures offers a timely platform to engage with both the effects of Covid-19 and the continuing racial and social injustice within our communities. Through this act of naming, the installation gives us the opportunity to explore issues around birth, life, death, loss, and collective grief, and to question—and change—who is venerated through our public sculptures and memorials.
Transforming Brooklyn Borough Hall into a site of recognition and remembrance, the boards are accessible both in-person and virtually. Names can be submitted online through this online portal from anywhere in the world.
All outdoor performances will adhere to protocols developed in accordance with New York State regulations and in consultation with medical professionals for the safety of our artists, audiences, and staff.
Arrivals + Departures Reading List
Check out this curated reading list from our friends at Greenlight Bookstore to supplement your experience of Arrivals + Departures.
Board Graphics and Website Design by Tom Merrell; Digital Fabrication by Rob Prouse
3D Design and Construction by Other Fabrications (UK); Production Management by Steve Wald
Supported by Without Walls and
commissioned by Artsadmin,
Freedom Festival (Hull) and
Norfolk & Norwich Festival.
Funded through the Create To Connect >
Create to Impact network
supported by Creative Europe programme
of the European Union
and Arts Council England.
Development supported by the IN SITU network
in the frame of ACT project co-funded by Creative Europe,
Without Walls Blueprint programme &
a Seedbed Residency at 101 Outdoor Arts.
Leadership support for off-site programs provided by:
Leadership support for BAM Access Programs provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation
Leadership support for BAM Visual Art provided by Toby Devan Lewis
Anba Dlo
Ase Dance Theatre Collective
Choreography by Adia Tamar Whitaker
Ase Dance Theatre Collective performs a dance piece rooted in Haitian traditions referring to the ancestral home of the spirits from which they come and go.
Artists Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond reflect on their public art installation Arrivals + Departures, exploring the power of naming as a personal and potentially radical act.
