This examination of land attempts to communicate past stories of early 19th century Black migration through and into southeast Michigan. Watkins Farm is a site that holds conflicting memories of safety, grief, anxiety, and hope for Black Americans freeing themselves from pre-Civil War enslavement. Images of the farm, shot on 120mm film, are laser-engraved onto cotton fabric and assembled with thread and river sediment. The accompanying audio, created from resonances of recordings made at the farm, is relayed through an FM transmitter and distorted by interfering signals before reaching radio receivers. Radio waves take time to relay data, and due to that latency are able to send information into the future. Together, the parts work to create a palimpsest from gaps in history-making and topological memory; they aim to open communication between the past, present, and future. As these photographs and recordings are translated repeatedly, they question what is lost and what is preserved.
