Rachel Sydlowski and Marquise Foster

Screenprint collage, hand printed upholstery, vintage chairs and table, acrylic paint, cardboard, UV-A light

Ceremonial Clothing by Marquise Foster
Gown; black embroidered lace with small crystals throughout the gown and gloves
Suit; black heavy shin satin cotton paired with a white high neck cotton shirt and a pair of high waist satin cotton pants

In Assembly of Ciphers at the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, I intervene with the architectural space of the front parlor to challenge and reframe the historical narrative of this space. Once a leisure area for the Dyckman family, this room is transformed into a space that honors and recognizes the lives of enslaved peoples from Upper Manhattan—specifically those enslaved by the Dyckman family. The work serves as a meditation on the complexities of history and the ways in which spaces, objects, and structures can hold untold stories that demand to be uncovered. How can we truly know the past? How do we connect with those who lived before us? Assembly of Ciphers forces the viewer to confront these questions, positioning them as active participants in unearthing fragments of history and interpreting a cryptic code.

False artifacts replace some of the existing furniture, and decorative elements of the farmhouse, replacing the portraits of the Dyckman family with UV-A sensitive images, and placing ceremonial and mourning garments—an elegant formal dress and suit created by Marquise Foster within the parlor disrupts the authority of the Dyckman family. These garments, presented as "false artifacts" in the context of the Dyckman home, serve to collapse the boundaries between the past and present, blending historical memory with contemporary reinterpretation. The clothing acts as both a symbol of loss and a marker of resistance, suggesting the presence of lives and histories that were once silenced.

The room is further transformed with cobalt blue prints of native and medicinal plants, connecting directly with the delft tiles that decorate the hearth—a pastoral motif that echoes the comfort and economic power of the Dyckman family’s life, while simultaneously highlighting the natural resources that sustained both the wealthy and the enslaved. Hidden beneath this aesthetic layer, I add a layer of invisible ultraviolet imagery: native plants from the lands of the enslaved, excerpts from historical documents, and the names of enslaved individuals, all encoded in an ultraviolet medium. To reveal these hidden traces of history, viewers must engage with the space using a blacklight or UV-A lantern. This method of revelation forces the viewer to actively search for and uncover the past, making the act of discovering these concealed histories an intimate, participatory experience.

The chairs that form a circle in the center of the parlor are symbolic of an assembly or meeting space—an invitation for viewers to engage in a collective reflection and conversation. The act of sitting in this space, once a place of leisure for the Dyckman family, now becomes a space for reckoning and contemplation, where the legacies of enslavement and resistance come into focus.

By activating the space, Assembly of Ciphers asks visitors to reconsider the lives of those who were enslaved and the histories that were erased or overlooked. Rather than restoring lost histories, this work creates a space for the viewer to inhabit the parlor and engage directly with the past. The complex code of history is activated in the present moment, creating an opportunity for reflection and dialogue. In this way, the installation does not merely present a historical narrative, but empowers the viewer to be a part of the process of uncovering and interpreting that narrative. In doing so, the act of being present in the space, engaging with the past, and reflecting on it, becomes a step toward creating a more just and informed future—a future that acknowledges the untold histories and seeks to right the wrongs of the past