2024 Winner: Medium Scale

“Moving Chains by artist Charles Gaines” is a monumental 110-foot long kinetic multi-sensory installation that people can walk through. Evoking the hull of a slave ship, the piece confronts the American origin story—both the nation’s founding and its expansion—dissecting the narrative of slavery and the falsehoods and omissions that have furthered the project of white supremacy. Conceived by Charles Gaines with our architecture firm credited as “collaborating architects,” this building-scale sculpture is fabricated from steel and sustainably harvested Sapele, a tree native to West Africa. Overhead, nine custom made chains weighing over 1,600 pounds move in a rhythmic, undulating loop, evoking the sounds of New York Harbor at the entrance to the Hudson River – a waterway that served as an economic pillar for the transatlantic slave trade. Installed on a site that faces the Statue of Liberty—an international symbol of benevolence and human rights, distinguished by the abolitionist iconography of a broken shackle and chain at her right foot—Moving Chains calls attention to the nation’s economic, judicial, and political frameworks that continue the legacy of slavery today.