DOCUMENTARY
A Rain Of Ruin, 2025 / Mixed Media / 7.5 x 14 ft. / This sculptural wall mural and sound installation was created at MACRE Ithaca in August 2025 to mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From two speakers, a dialogue unfolds between the artist and an AI-generated replica of her deceased father’s voice, drawn from his oral history in Answering Their Country’s Call: Marylanders in World War II (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002). Developed with artist and sound engineer Norm Scott and the artist’s brother Gerry L. Brewster, the recreated voice combines performance and archival audio. The voices narrate a red-splattered landscape recalling the battle of Sugar Loaf Hill and the wider devastation of the atomic bomb, reflecting on inherited memory, war mythology, and the enduring legacy of mass destruction. Together, the voices narrate a red-splattered landscape recalling both the brutal battle of Sugar Loaf Hill and the wider devastation of the atomic bomb. The work reflects on inherited memory, the silence of trauma, and the tension between patriotic myth and the morally complex histories that shape how we understand mass destruction today.