5. Layers at the Naval Cemetery Landscape

Interior view of Layers by Aaron Asis. Courtesy of the artist.
Interior view of Layers by Aaron Asis. Courtesy of the artist.

This fall, Layers will be presented in the Naval Cemetery Landscape, located on the southeast corner of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Created by Aaron Asis (Untapped New York’s Artist-in-Residence), the art installation will be uniquely split into two distinct parts — with both asking viewers to contemplate the impact of human intervention in natural spaces during the past, present, and future. Specifically, Layers centers on the multifaceted history of the Naval Cemetery Landscape and Brooklyn Navy Yard. From 1831 to 1910, before the Naval Cemetery Landscape existed, the Brooklyn Naval Hospital Cemetery was an active burial site. However, in 1926, the Navy relocated individuals buried in the cemetery to Cypress Hills National Cemetery. Years later during the 1990s, archeological investigations discovered that there are potentially hundreds of unaccounted burials still located underneath the cemetery. In 2016, the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative would open the Naval Cemetery Landscape on the site of the former cemetery, meaning for it to become a place for retreat and remembrance.


As part of Layers, on the entry wall to the Naval Cemetery Landscape, there will be a large-scale paper mural that displays the pre-developmental landscape surrounding the Brooklyn Navy Yards and the Naval Cemetery Landscape. Inside the cemetery, there will be a beautiful and immersive display of hundreds of stripes along the boardwalk, each meant to represent pre-development patterns in the landscape as a demonstration of how humans have impacted the land since their arrival. Along the chalked stripes will be footprints highlighting and honoring the lives historically laid to rest in the cemetery. Layers’ will be completed on September 16th and will run through October 10, 2021. You can see this installation in its first few days by joining a fundraiser garden party with the Brooklyn Greenway in the Naval Cemetery Landscape on September 18th.