Adela Goldbard’s project for Triennial 2025 was a time-based artwork in the form of a quarter-scale replica of a 17th-century sailing ship used by European colonists landing in the Americas. The 32’ long x 6’ 7” wide x 24’ 9” tall replica galleon was constructed in Mexico using invasive reeds, phragmites, gathered from New England and Mexico in the spring of 2025 and woven by Uros artisans from Lake Titicaca in Peru.

After 9 days on view at City Hall Plaza, the exhibit culminated in a three-part performance on September 12 at 7:00 pm — a fictionalized “first encounter” between Indigenous people and European colonists. Accompanied by live Brazilian drumming, it transitioned from a somber battle into a festive traditional Mexican Castillo pyrotechnic display and the theatrical destruction of the ship.

Through this work, Goldbard addresses the legacy of colonization across the Americas, highlighting the painful and violent process of cultural erasure and hybridization. Her primary partners in the construction of the work have been the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the Artsumex (pyrotechnic) collective from Tultepec—whose traditional techniques will be carried out by a U.S.-based pyrotechnician, John Ruggieri of Ocean State Pyrotechnics—and Peruvian-American artist Aymar Ccopacatty. Several local Indigenous community members have been involved in the conception of this work alongside the co-curator of Triennial 2025: The Exchange and citizen of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, Tess Lukey.

The performance acted as a counterpoint to the colonial violence rooted in Massachusetts, where Native American communities—including the Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Pocumtuc peoples—faced displacement, war, and attempted erasure. Through shared ritual and spectacle, it honored their resistance and resilience, and offered a communal act of healing and remembrance.