ABOUT THE ART: TRIAL OF MEMORIES
Trial Of Memories
Year: 2020, 2022
Medium: Reupholstered chair, plaster, wood, metal, fiber glass resin, acrylic paint, bronze wax, ink
Dimensions: 4.5 ft x 3.5 ft x 2ft
Trial of Memories
By Danisha Edwards
"Trial of Memories" is a sculptural documentation of one of my visions—a dream that left a lasting imprint on my spirit and creative process.
In the dream, I was sitting at a table surrounded by peers. Yet, despite being physically present, I felt unseen. Every time I spoke, my voice seemed to disappear into the air—no one looked my way, no one responded. They continued their conversations, laughing, engaging with each other as if I wasn’t even there. It was a familiar ache—the kind that comes from being overlooked in spaces you’re told you belong to.
Then something shifted.
My chair suddenly tipped back, and I fell—not onto the ground, but into the ocean. I wasn’t drowning. Instead, I was being lifted and carried by the water, as if it knew exactly where I needed to go. Beneath the surface, flames began to approach me. The water and fire coexisted in a way that defied the laws of this world. As the flames moved through me, I wasn’t burned—but I changed. I felt transformed.
This moment became the foundation of Trial of Memories. The sculpture features a French country-style chair—symbolizing tradition, expectation, and position—being pulled backward by a sea of hands, cast from my own. Each hand reaches from a resin-based fluid grave, representing past lives, memories, and spirits that refuse to remain buried. The hands tug at the chair, pulling it into the symbolic ocean—an emotional and ancestral realm where transformation takes place.
This piece is my way of putting that moment on trial.
I created Trial of Memories not only to honor the vision but to seek deeper meaning. It is my way of reaching out to elders and spiritual guides in my community, asking: What am I missing? What is the lesson hidden in the moment of being ignored, in the fall, in the water, in the flames that didn’t burn but still changed me?
The work is both testimony and question. It is a call for reflection, for interpretation, for dialogue. A trial—not of guilt or innocence—but of meaning, memory, and spiritual inheritance.
