How do we build a space of memory for ourselves and our communities in the future? How do we envision a site of refuge, joy, and coalition for the historically marginalized?

These questions are at the center of Heather Hart: Afrotecture (Re)Collection, an exhibition that stems from the artist’s research on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968. At UB CFA Gallery, Hart presents a sculptural installation that quotes the architecture of the motel balcony in order to revisit this critical moment in the Civil Rights Movement. The work explores the intersection of this collective national trauma and the individual and physical experience of the balcony as a site of memorialization. Designed to be activated by visitors, this exhibition serves as a gathering space and site for study and imaginings by UB students and the greater Buffalo communities.

Photos: Nando Alvarez-Perez

Construction Team: Quincy Kocka, Nick Wheeler, Charles Martin, Frances Parson, and Adrian Massey.