For the past five years, our Waterfront Park has lent itself to various public art installations. It’s all thanks to the Alexandria Public Art Program, an extension of the City of Alexandria’s Office of the Arts. Together they act as the driving force behind the public art project Site See: New Views in Old Town. It’s an annual series of temporary public art that brings residents and visitors to Waterfront Park in Alexandria, Virginia to interact with contemporary art in a historic location.
This series began in 2019 with its first installation, Mirror Mirror, an Interactive Public Artwork designed by the New York-based design studio, SOFTlab. Every year the Site See Community Task Force gathers with the Alexandria Commission for the Arts to review artwork submissions, interview artists, and select the strongest proposal. Each artist is expected to develop a concept specifically inspired by the city and/or its history.
This year’s installation by Nina Cooke John is the fifth public artwork to be featured in the city’s ongoing series and it’s an unforgettable one.
“The installation Nina Cooke John has created for Waterfront Park forms an abstracted ship’s hull with steel vertical elements that rise and bend, referencing the curve of the hull’s frame. The vertical elements spread across the site to form the rough outline of a ship. Visitors can stand within the space and imagine a time in Alexandria’s history when the ships carried not only cargo like tobacco, molasses, rum, and limes but also enslaved people who were traded as part of the transatlantic and domestic slave trades.”
“Like an archaeological dig, the installation is layered. Text on the vertical elements and the ground reveals fragments of information taken from the manifests of ships that arrived at the Port of Alexandria in the 18th century. Lists of cargo such as “herring”, “coconuts” and “gin” are painted on the ground and embedded in the vertical elements alongside names found in the manifests, such as “Jane Tailor, female, 5’-2.”” Also listed are “two boxes of oranges” and “Admonia Jackson.”
“Approaching the installation from the exterior of the abstracted hull, visitors view one side, or layer, of history. Once inside the installation, a fuller story is revealed. Visitors can move in, through, and between the installation elements, reading the text, running their hands along the words, and stepping amongst the lists of items and individuals carried to and from Alexandria’s waterfront in the 18th century.” (Artwork description courtesy of the City of Alexandria website).
The form of the installation was inspired by the 18th-century ship that was discovered during the redevelopment of the Robinson Terminal area in 2018. This was actually the third ship to be unearthed in Old Town.
About the Artist
Nina Cooke John is the founding principal of Studio Cooke John Architecture and Design, which is a multidisciplinary design studio that values place making as a way to transform relationships between people and the built environment. Working at the scale of the human body; individually or collectively, in the home or on the street, they respond to how we use space in our everyday lives, whether in the family unit or as a community.
Born in Jamaica, Nina has always been inspired by the creativity she witnessed in her homeland: the art of people transforming everyday hardships and limitations into innovative solutions through multiple spheres of life. She imbues the spirit of transformation and innovation into every design project, from the structure of a home’s interior to the streetscape of a city block.
Nina began her professional career designing houses in Connecticut, Arizona, and Virginia with the architecture firm Voorsanger and Associates. She went on to work on large cultural institutional projects like the New York Botanical Gardens master plan, the Clinton Library, and the Biltmore Theater at Polshek Partnership (now Ennead).
She collaborated with Reddymade Design on retail design, corporate offices, custom residential construction, and interior design for seven years before forming Frame Design Lab in 2012. Studio Cooke John is the evolution of that collaboration.
For two decades Nina has been a sought-after educator, having taught architecture and design strategy at Syracuse University and currently at Parsons the New School for Design and Columbia University. Nina is a 2022 USA Reiss Fellow. She has been a registered architect since 2000 holding licenses in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. She earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University. (Artist bio courtesy of Studio Cooke John website).
Two Boxes of Oranges and Admonia Jackson made its debut in March 2023 and will remain on view through November 5th, 2023. Alexandria’s Waterfront Park is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and located at 1 Prince St, Alexandria, VA 22314. If you’d like to learn more about public art in Alexandria, review the Public Art Implementation Plan & Policy, and click here to discover more public art projects in Alexandria. If you share any photos or videos on social media but sure to use #artsALX and tag @alexartsoffice to spread the word.
Principle Gallery 