Reposo y Recuerdo: Laura Anderson Barbata’s Day of the Dead Installation at Green-Wood Cemetery

Barbata recalls how intricate the tradition can be. “I used to always have quite a large one that I would set up at home for loved ones, family members, friends… and it would get pretty elaborate,” she says. “In some cases, in Mexico, people actually make full meals that they put out and leave for a few days for the spirits of their departed to come and enjoy.”

Marigolds, in particular, carry deep symbolic resonance. “The marigold flowers are very important. The color draws the spirits in, as does the scent,” Barbata explains. “Traditionally, you place marigold petals from the offering all the way outside your home, so that the spirits will see them and follow them into the altar.”

This elaborate practice extends beyond homes into cemeteries and public spaces. “Many of these are done in cemeteries as well. That’s a very big tradition in Mexico, and people decorate tombs with flowers, seeds, photos, and candles; they bring music, drink, and spend all night by the side of the tomb,” Barbata notes. “There are even competitions in some cemeteries—who made the best ofrenda, the most beautiful altar.”

Public altars, she adds, are often created by artists. “Frida Kahlo, for example did them all the time. And many artists are invited to install and design an ofrenda for Museums, cultural spaces, and public buildings. Sometimes they highlight a particular cultural figure—For example, Frida Kahlo or someone like Julia Pastrana, whose body I helped repatriate to Mexico. The idea is that artists bring their own artistic interpretation to the offering. It isn’t traditional per se, but it is traditional for artists to make it more personal.”

The installation transforms the entire Green-Wood Historic Chapel where visitors will encounter an immersive, multi-sensory environment. A circle of freestanding, handwoven hammocks, each crafted by artisans from Yucatán, Mexico, using pre-Columbian techniques, provides a meditative space for contemplation and connection. 

Above the hammocks, colorful papel picado (cut-paper banners) adorn the Chapel alongside cascading paper marigold garlands. Festive patterns and whimsical images of skeletons on bicycles and wearing fanciful hats bring a vibrant energy that celebrates the enduring bond between the living and the dead. In keeping with the intention of Día de Muertos, death is honored as a connection to our past, not as an end.

The floor is layered with mulch and pine needles, offering softness and fragrance. In the air, copal incense, “a smell very much associated with Day of the Dead,” mingles with a carefully composed soundscape: recordings of the Venezuelan Amazon rainforest, where Barbata has worked since the 1990s, interwoven with “In a Quiet Corner,” a song performed by Apparatjik and written by Magne Furuholmen. Visitors will hear it sung in both English and in Spanish by Concha Buika, who is one of my favorite musicians. It is an honor for me to have their incredible voices in the installation.

“My hope,” Barbata reflects, “is that people will take a moment from the crazy busy schedules that everyone has in New York, and just wind down, take a moment for themselves, and recall and connect with the memories of people that you love.”

Around the chapel, activity tables invite visitors to decorate cut-out skulls, a practice rooted in the joyful tradition of sugar skulls. “In our culture, skulls are not seen as anything negative or scary,” Barbata explains. “They’re a reminder that life and death are always part of our lives, and we celebrate them with joy”.

Red ribbons, a recurring motif in Barbata’s work with hammocks, are provided for writing messages. Visitors can pin decorated skulls and ribbons to bamboo structures flanking the altar, gradually building a wall of memory. “It will be growing,” she notes. “adding what the public brings, creates, and shares”.

The installation also features a monumental skull rack, called a tzompantli, and on each shelf large-scale hand-made and vibrantly decorated skulls are placed. The work was crafted by artist collective ¨Tiempo de Oficios¨ from Ciudad Juárez, México founded and led by Tita Bilbao. “It provides work, employment, and creative outlets for people who might have difficulties in other areas of the workplace,” says Barbata. “For them, as it is for me, the idea of having work in a cultural space like Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn is an important recognition.”

Rest and Remember continues Barbata’s long commitment to participatory art and community collaboration. She recalls her installation Our History Is Not in a Book (2000), in which red ribbons tied to hammocks carried messages of personal memory, and her decades-long collaboration with the Yanomami community of Venezuela to create handmade books documenting their own histories.

“Working with the Green-Wood team has been a joy and an honor. Their support, and the dedication of the staff, assistants, and volunteers have made this project possible,” Barbata shares.

The installation opens October 11 and runs through November 16, encompassing the Day of the Dead (November 2). Public programming includes school visits, workshops, and a Day of the Dead Family Celebration on November 1, which draws nearly 5,000 visitors with music, food, and dance. A pet altar will also be installed, adorned with papel picado featuring skeletal cats and dogs.

As Barbata notes, Rest and Remember is not a static offering, but a living one. “Basically, there are parts of this ofrenda and installation that are added to by visitor participation,” she says. Visitors are invited to also bring photos and mementos of loved ones who have passed and place them on the steps of the altar, “It’s a creative and ritual space for reflexion, and introspection, and experience freedom, respect, and memory that we don’t always have. That’s what makes it special.”