The City of Alexandria unveiled Two Boxes of Oranges and Admonia Jackson in Alexandria’s Waterfront Park (1 Prince St.) in March 2023. This temporary installation by Nina Cooke John of Studio Cooke John was the fifth in the Site See: New Views in Old Town annual public art series. The installation was on view until November 5, 2023.

The installation Cooke John has created for Waterfront Park forms an abstracted ship’s hull with steel vertical elements that rise and bend, referencing the curve of the hull’s frame. The vertical elements spread across the site to form the rough outline of a ship. Visitors can stand within the space and imagine a time in Alexandria’s history when the ships carried not only cargo like tobacco, molasses, rum and limes, but also enslaved people who were traded as part of the transatlantic and domestic slave trades.

Like an archaeological dig, the installation is layered. Text on the vertical elements and the ground reveals fragments of information taken from the manifests of ships that arrived to the Port of Alexandria in the 18th century.  Lists of cargo such as “herring”, “coconuts” and “gin” are painted on the ground and embedded in the vertical elements alongside names found in the manifests, such as “Jane Tailor, female, 5’-2.””  Also listed are “two boxes of oranges” and “Admonia Jackson”.

Approaching the installation from the exterior of the abstracted hull, visitors view one side, or layer, of history. Once inside the installation, a fuller story is revealed.  Visitors can move in, through and between the installation elements, reading the text, running their hands along the words, and stepping amongst the lists of items and individuals carried to and from Alexandria’s waterfront in the 18th century. 

The Site See: New Views in Old Town temporary public art series highlights Waterfront Park as a civic space. Waterfront Park is a key location for original commissioned art in Alexandria. This installation follows R&R Studios’ 2022 I Love You, Mark Reigelman’s 2021 Groundswell, Olalekan Jeyifous’s 2020 Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies and SOFTlab’s 2019 Mirror Mirror installations.

Nina Cooke John was selected to create this site-specific artwork by a community task force with approval from the Alexandria Commission for the Arts.

Nina Cooke John is the founding principal of Studio Cooke John Architecture and Design, a multidisciplinary design studio that values placemaking as a way to transform relationships between people and the built environment. Nina’s work has also been featured in Architectural Record, Madame Architect, on NBC’s Open House New York, in Dwell Magazine’s “13 Extraordinary Women in Design and Architecture You Need to Know” and the Center for Architecture’s 2018 exhibition, Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture. Studio Cooke John has been selected to design the new Harriet Tubman Monument in Newark, is a part of the Elle Décor A-List for 2021 and 2022, and was named a 2022 USA Fellow in Architecture and Design.

Born in Jamaica, Nina has always been inspired by the creativity she witnessed in her homeland: the art of people transforming everyday hardships and limitations into innovative solutions through multiple spheres of life. She imbues this spirit of transformation and innovation into every project.  Learn more at www.cookejohn.com or follow @studiocookejohn on Instagram. 

To learn more about public art in Alexandria, review the Public Art Implementation Plan & Policy, or learn more about other public art projects in Alexandria. Follow @alexartsoffice on Instagram and Twitter. Add to the conversation with #artsALX.