BRANDON NDIFE | Decline

Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island

May 26 – Dec 15, 2025

Lighthouse Works’ twelfth public sculpture commission and Ndife’s third major outdoor work—following presentations at Storm King and The Aldrich—Decline is built entirely from materials gathered on Fishers Island: felled timber and domestic wooden objects contributed by local residents.

Anchored by a sprawling, unearthed root structure, the sculpture adopts the form of a fallen tree suspended on its side, its hollow trunk studded with donated tables, chairs, shutters, and banisters. These salvaged objects appear partially consumed by the form, as if the tree had absorbed them slowly over time. Their presence is neither decorative nor nostalgic, but integral—recasting the work as a kind of communal reliquary. What emerges is not just a downed tree, but a portrait of a place and the fragile bond between human and natural histories.

Set along the coast, in a threshold space where land, water, and sky converge, Decline becomes a quiet monument to impermanence: a sculptural gesture that reflects the beauty and inevitability of natural and social transformation.

For details, visit Lighthouse Works's website.