Arrivals + Departures

During a period of incredible loss, as we enter a more hopeful spring, this public art installation pays tribute to people – both those entering the world and leaving it. Taking the recognisable form of a train station or airport arrivals and departures board, the public are invited to share names of people to the boards as a way of celebrating a birth (arrivals), honouring someone living, or commemorating a death (departures).

Created by social practice artist duo Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond, the US premiere of Arrivals + Departures offers a timely platform to engage with both the effects of Covid-19 and the continuing racial and social injustice within our communities. Through this act of naming, the installation gives us the opportunity to explore issues around birth, life, death, loss, and collective grief, and to question—and change—who is venerated through our public sculptures and memorials.

Presented by BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) as part of their Spring 2021 programme and transforming Brooklyn Borough Hall into a site of recognition and remembrance, the boards are accessible both in-person and virtually.

Names can be submitted online beginning March 14 through this online portal from anywhere in the world.

Submit a name

Watch ‘The Power of Naming’, a talk with Yara El-Sherbini and Davina Drummond from 23 March: