Making A Garden of Strange Fruit
Samuel Levi Jones, LAA Office, and Sam Van Aken presented Making a Garden of Strange Fruit at the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial: THIS IS A REHEARSAL at the Chicago Cultural Center. This was the first presentation of Marion Legacy, a permanent installation proposed by artist Samuel Levi Jones for his hometown of Marion, Indiana. The project is a site of remembrance and contemplation acknowledging the 1930 lynching of James Cameron, Thomas Shipp, and Abraham S. Smith. Enclosed by a perforated metal screen based on patterns that emerge in Levi Jones’ artworks, the public garden will be located across from the Grant County Courthouse where the lynching took place and will feature a grafted fruit tree commissioned from artist Sam Van Aken. Making a Garden of Strange Fruit tells the story of this project through the lens of three themes: Time, Memory, and Witness.