Elitza Koeva, PhD Candidate, Graduate School of Design
Location: Linden
CMP Capstone Committee:
Matt Saunders
Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies
Laura Frahm
Professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies
Divinity Tree
At the heart of Divinity Tree is a 150-year-old red oak tree that was felled in 2019 to make room for a multi-million-dollar renovation and extension of Andover Hall (now Swartz Hall) at Harvard Divinity School. The tree stood at the center of Divinity School, towering to a height of 75 feet, and covered half of the yard with its canopy. The work is grounded in archival research, as well as a series of conversations and interviews, often in the form of intimate confessions with activists (students and faculty) who put enormous efforts into attempting to save the tree. This failed endeavor left many traumatized and disillusioned about Harvard’s ethical stance as an institution.
Divinity Tree acts as a point of departure, tracing the tree’s afterlife through diverse sensory experiences, with the aim to decenter the privileged ontological position of the human and foreground the tree as a perfect embodiment of mutual entanglement and interdependence with the rest of the biotic and abiotic world.