Keisha Scarville Transforms Brooklyn Museum Plaza into Memorial Installation

Keisha Scarville's 'Where Salt Meets Black Water' at the Brooklyn Museum turns the institution's plaza into a site of remembrance through photography, textiles, and architecture. The installation, on view until October 4, 2026, draws on family photographs, her late mother's garments, and Guyanese landscapes to explore grief, migration, and diaspora. Scarville enlarges details from photographs for the museum steps, allowing viewers to move in and out of the work. She describes the title as evoking a liminal space between the United States and Guyana, referencing the healing black waters of Guyana. The artist notes that incorporating her mother's clothes marked a shift in her photography, viewing them as material archives that evolve with her grief. Scarville aims for visitors to reflect on loss, the in-between, and what is carried forward, dedicating the installation to her parents and the Caribbean diaspora in Brooklyn.