From their earliest conception, the Jay Estate Gardens in Rye have been a place to host meaningful dialogues about American history and memory. A new outdoor wire sculpture exhibit created by acclaimed artist Kristine Mays expands upon that intentionality, celebrating and memorializing the spirts of enslaved people. Curated by the nonprofit Jay Heritage Center (JHC), “Rich Soil” is the first collection of fine art pieces to be installed in the historic landscape.

“I am breathing life into wire. With each work, I create a form that reveals the essence of a person and that speaks to humanity as a whole,” Mays said.

Twenty-nine life-sized sculptures with titles like Ancestral Spin and Celestial Prayer Meeting are nestled amidst drifts of purple autumn asters and swaying Japanese anemones.

A congregation of male and female torsos with arms outstretched, named All Night Worship, rises out of a reflecting pool and embodies “the deepest grief and the holiest joy.”

Another solitary figure, tucked into a broken stone wall, begs closer attention. Woven into the form’s dress are words by Zora Neale Hurston: “There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.”

Speaking to The New York Times in 2021, Mays said her work was “a celebration of all of the enslaved people… and this idea of them coming back, like their spirits rising up from the soil and rejoicing now that they’re free.” At the 23-acre Jay Estate, those spirits have names: Clarinda, Mary, Caesar Valentine, Sylvia and many more. Working closely with New York State Parks and Westchester partners like the American Women of African Heritage and Friends of the African American Cemetery, JHC has long offered programming about the women and men enslaved and freed by the Jay family and hosted exhibits about the founders of Westchester’s earliest Black churches and businesses.

Kristine Mays’ sculptures now go even further to enliven those narratives in the most visually powerful way possible. Made from thousands of pieces of wire looped together, each of Mays’ copper-hued garments deliver a message of resilience and hope that our whole history can finally be told.

JHC President Suzanne Clary said, “As a member site of New York State’s Path Through History for Civil Rights, the Jay Estate is a perfect venue for viewing these ethereal silhouettes.”

“As this body of work has travelled the country, it has picked up fragments of the ancestors along the way,” says Mays. “I feel as if there is a trail of souls wrapped up in this chorus – singing louder and louder – We are here. We are here. And so, while I feel like their presence will never cease to exist, we must acknowledge them even still. The Black body will never be erased, not from U.S. history and not from the world and global history.”

This is the New York debut for “Rich Soil.”  It opened at Filoli Historic House and Gardens in Woodside, CA, then travelled to Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens in Washington D.C.; Atlanta Botanical Gardens; and Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans.  Mays’ work was featured in “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 20th Anniversary World Concert Tour” and has been collected by the Crocker Art Museum and by private collectors including George Lucas, Mellody Hobson and Reggie Browne.

“My ultimate goal is to continue to share my work with a vast variety of people and with audiences from all backgrounds and walks of life,” said Mays. “Art not only has the ability to engage us visually, allowing us to dream, but it can also challenge, provoke and cause us to expand our thoughts and views. Sometimes community is created by bringing people together and allowing them to see the humanity within one another — building a bridge towards greater connection.”

The sculptures are available for purchase with a percentage of the proceeds to benefit programs at JHC. The exhibit is open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through November 15 with more public hours and programs to be announced at www.jayheritagecenter.org.

– Written by Suzanne Clary, Jay Heritage Center President. Photos by Kim Crichlow.