New Art Installation Coming To Alexandria Waterfront Park In 2020

ALEXANDRIA, VA — After the end of the Mirror Mirror exhibit, a new art installation is coming to Alexandria's Waterfront Park in 2020. Olalekan Jeyifous's "Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies" will be displayed from March to November.

The exhibit blends the city's African American history with its industrial and merchant history between the 17th and 20th centuries. Alexandria was well known as a port city with one of the largest domestic slave trading firms in the U.S., as well as a major location for shipping and manufacturing.

The exhibit will feature a ground mural with inspiration from African American quilting and textile traditions. The mural will be an abstract map accompanied by manufacturing icons. In addition, four metal figures of people with sculptural seating platforms will face the waterfront.

"We can explore our histories, acknowledge mythologies of resilience and resistance, and even ponder the futures of cities and public spaces," said Jeyifous in a statement. "My hope is that the artwork resonates in ways that inspire and elicit engagement and dialogue."

Before the Alexandria Office of the Arts commissioned Jeyifous to create large-scale art for Waterfront Park, has worked on other notable projects. His past projects have included the 2017 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Cleveland's Public Square, and Starbucks' flagship store in Chicago. His work has been featured at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, the Vitra Design Museum in Germany and the Guggenheim Museum in Spain. He is also working on a monument for Shirley Chisholm in Brooklyn to be unveiled in 2020.

Waterfront Park's art installations has become part of the effort to promote Alexandria as an arts destination. The first installation, "Mirror Mirror," was on display from March to November 2019.

For more about Jeyifous and his work, visit vigilism.com.