Elitza Koeva
PROJECTS
Phantom Tree
Divinity Tree
OMAPA
Speculum
Vanishing Soundscapes
Object to be Destroyed
Invisible Chair
Einstein’s {T}Ears
Daedalus {Perdix}
Trojan : the Matrixial
PHANTOM TREE
Sekishu paper, rice paper, red oak tree fragments, gold leaf, sound | 2025
At the heart of Phantom Tree is a 150-year-old red oak tree that was felled in 2019 to make way for a multi-million-dollar renovation and extension of Andover Hall (now Swartz Hall) at Harvard Divinity School. The tree stood at the center of Divinity School, towering to a height of 75 feet, and covered half of the yard with its canopy. The work is rooted in archival research, as well as a series of conversations and interviews, often in the form of intimate confessions with activists who put efforts into attempting to save the tree.
The story is one among many that highlight Harvard’s involvement in property development, urban gentrification, and land acquisition.
Phantom Tree acts as a point of departure, tracing the tree’s afterlife through diverse sensory experiences, aiming to decenter the privileged ontological position of the human and foreground the tree as a perfect embodiment of mutual entanglement and interdependence with the rest of the biotic and abiotic world.