Jennifer Tobias: Swords and Plowshares

Jennifer Tobias’ installation in the Sun Porch is based on research on Wave Hill resident Bashford Dean (1867–1928), a rare expert in both body armor and prehistoric fish. During World War I, Dean built Armor Hall to house his armor collection in Wave Hill House and applied his knowledge to the design of helmets and armor for modern, mechanized warfare. Tobias’ sculptural installation, consisting of human-fish armor hybrids constructed from cardboard, suggests both a natural history museum and an aquarium in the context of the garden. A wall panel introduces visitors to Dean as a scholar, curator, and NYC resident through text and documentary images, accompanied by a leaflet that invites visitors to seek out Armor Hall as well as Atlas Poppies (Papaver atlanticum) in the Wild Garden, flowers that evoke the wild poppies (Papaver rhoea) of World War I battlefields. 

Organized by Curator of Visual Arts Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger, the Sunroom Project Space is an open call opportunity for New York-area artists to develop and exhibit a site-specific project as a solo exhibition. The 2025 applications were reviewed by a panel of arts professionals including Jordany Genao, a Dominican interdisciplinary artist and educator; Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel, an artist whose practice unfolds performatively through creative experiences within the quotidian, and the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism at the intersection of creativity and healing; and Gugelberger.