Rock, Mosquito and Hummingbird: A Prehistory of Governors Island

Rock, Mos­qui­to and Hum­ming­bird: A Pre­his­to­ry of Gov­er­nors Island is a new work by artist David Brooks. A wind­ing sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion recent­ly unveiled in the mag­a­zine of his­toric Fort Jay, Brook­s’s piece is the first art­work com­mis­sioned by the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island since 2014.

Rock, Mos­qui­to and Hum­ming­bird digs down to the core of Gov­er­nors Island, expos­ing the stra­ta of his­to­ry of this float­ing rock in NY Har­bor. Prob­ing three sites on the Island’s orig­i­nal foot­print, Brooks bored through the sur­face of the ground to depths of 90 to 125 feet, telling the sto­ry of this ancient place through exca­vat­ed core sam­ples of cob­bles, soil, silt, shells, clay and bedrock. This nar­ra­tive leads vis­i­tors beyond the dom­i­nant mil­i­tary his­to­ry of the site, to imag­ine a land­mass that for mil­lions of years played a part in a larg­er sto­ry.

Spe­cial thanks to the Nation­al Parks Service.