Commissioned by the Office for the Arts at Harvard University, Deep Wounds is a site-specific, interactive installation created for the campus's historic Memorial Hall. The piece was installed for three weeks in April 2006 and was open to the public.
Built between 1870 and 1878, Memorial Hall honors the Harvard graduates who died in the Civil War while fighting for the Union. Each of these men’s year of graduation, name, date of death and battle of death are permanently inscribed in the marble walls of the transept that serves as the main entrance to the hall. Deep Wounds uses this space to explore unfinished healing and reconciliation.
Entering the transept, we see the Union men's names, dates and battles on the walls; we see the beautiful stained glass windows and cathedral ceilings; and we see that the white marble floor has become luminous in certain central areas with hints of inscribed text. As we walk across these floor areas, the luminous skin blisters and opens to reveal descriptions of Harvard graduates who died while fighting for the Confederacy. Each man's year of graduation, state, date of death and battle of death are projected onto the floor. Instead of a name, however, we see a relationship such as ‘father’ or ‘classmate’ that describes a family relationship each man had or a relationship he had to schoolmates on the wall. After the uncovering, the skin mends itself, covering the names once again.
The Confederate men are arranged on the floor facing or close to Union men from the same Harvard graduation year. The Union words are etched in red and the Confederate words are written in blue.