After the End

Memorial artworks are notoriously difficult to pull off. Yet Candy Chang and James A. Reeves, two New York artists who have created similar installations in the past, hit just the right tone with After the End, a participatory work in the Historic Chapel at Green-Wood Cemetery. —The New York Times

After the End is a public installation dedicated to contemplating loss in all forms—the loss of loved ones, relationships, health, and worlds we once knew—as well as the practices that have helped us endure. Candy Chang and James A. Reeves invite visitors to anonymously share their experience on a scroll and place it upon an illuminated altar. Lit from within, each response embodies the form of a devotional candle, and together they create an evolving field of light. Visitors can read the handwritten reflections on the altar or sit in the apse and watch an ever-growing cycle of projected reflections while oriented towards the greater community. Inspired by the role of light in religious ceremonies and the visions of science fiction, After the End offers a refuge that reminds us we are not alone as we mourn the end of one reality and enter the next.