A Ceremony for the Trees, protocols for preservation.
A performance series honoring the ecological legacies of the trees on Governors Island.
The works highlight the medicinal and traditional uses of hickory, chestnut, and oak trees to recall significant events that transpired on Governors Island—the 1637 purchase of Governors Island by the Dutch, the 1912 Plant Quarantine Act, and the 1994 Governors Island Accord.
Considering how trees listen, watch, and wait, the performances unpack the role of Governors Island in settling New Amsterdam, the mismanagement of the Chestnut blight, and the United Nations’ decision to reinstate Aristide, Haiti’s ousted dictator, to power.
“A Ceremony for the Trees” is a three-part performance series that uses the trees on Governors Island as both metaphor and subject to reflect on how survival, coexistence, and rebirth parallel natural ecosystems. Trees serve as symbols of resilience—physically strong yet socially interconnected, with deep-rooted networks that sustain both themselves and their surroundings. These performances reveal how human societies mirror these ecosystems, addressing the history of trees on Governors Island and their significance, from colonization to environmental changes, and bringing forth their collective survival and rebirth.
These reflections on birth, transformation, and the chaos required to rearrange life’s components bring an organic and cyclical perspective that mirrors processes in nature. The collaborations with other artists underscore the importance of community in artistic practice and reflect the cyclical nature of influence and inspiration that guides her work.
“A Ceremony for the Trees” performance series
Images by Duane Garay