Revenant Florida: Landscapes as Living Memory

March 15 through June 7, 2025

9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (last entrance at 3:00 p.m.)

The Kampong

Much of Florida’s past has been deliberately buried or swept away by storms, and older structures are rare, but history exists beyond the remnants of manmade structures and stones and circles. Christina Pettersson speculates on how not just historic sites but the landscape itself – trees, plants and even birds – can act as living artifacts of our history, providing a unique opportunity to access a multitude of events, human drama, natural disasters, or more intimate details of the past. In Revenant Florida, Pettersson presents drawings that bear witness to sacred places in her home state.

Consider Fairchild Oak, the oldest tree in Florida at over 400 years old, located within Bulow Creek State Park, once part of a slave plantation. Or a particularly hallowed grove at Kissimmee Prairie State Park, where the last living Carolina Parakeet (our only native parrot species in North America) was shot in 1904. Questioning the myth of Florida as a young place, her drawings reckon with how beautiful places often resonate with a darker past.

With a bit of sorcery, Pettersson’s menagerie of creatures and structures reconnects viewers to their ancestral past, signaling a communal remembrance of our unique environmental heritage that made life at this particular place possible. It is a reminder of the eternal view, the beating heart of a place, that once was, is still and ever will haunt it.

Included in the exhibition are illustrations of 24 historic sites within Biscayne Bay, including The Kampong, as part of an initiative to make Biscayne Bay a National Heritage Area, headed by founder and Director of Bridge Kate Fleming.

Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, March 15 from 5 to 7pm! Admission is free for NTBG Members, $10 for non-members. Registration is required.