Art installation inside White Plains bank vault asks: How do we protect what matters most?
Housed inside the former vault of the People’s National Bank and Trust Company, artist Rana Amirtahmasebi transformed the space with handmade ceramics, living plants and khatam, a geometric pattern that can extend infinitely without repeating.
The Janet Langsam Vault Project at ArtsWestchester in White Plains has explored what is worth preserving across five exhibitions. This year’s installation, Continuum Terra, offers visitors plenty to consider.
Housed inside the former vault of the People’s National Bank and Trust Company, artist Rana Amirtahmasebi transformed the space with handmade ceramics, living plants and khatam, a geometric pattern that can extend infinitely without repeating.
“The idea that a vault is a place where you protect treasures. You protect capital,” said ArtsWestchester CEO Kathleen Reckling. “What are other forms of capital that’s important to protect? …Rana is talking about memory.”
Amirtahmasebi says the work reflects her desire to preserve the visual memories of her childhood and pass them on to her children.
“How do I transfer the visual memories that I have from childhood to my kids? And is it going to disappear? Is it going to stay with them?”
It’s an unsettling question.
The installation’s symbols of permanence stand in stark contrast with living plants that slowly wither over the course of the exhibition.
The pattern, bank, vault and vases each contain assurances, but the dying plants seem to offer none.
Perhaps the question posed by Continuum Terra is not what we protect, but how we let go of what we value most.
Continuum Terra is on view through Aug. 2.
