Declaration House 2024, United States of America, Philadelphia
Through descendant eyes, liberty’s contradictions laid bare
A historic site in Philadelphia pulsed with new life as Sonya Clark’s “The Descendants of Monticello” (2024) animated the façade of Declaration House from June to December 2024. A monumental montage of blinking eyes illuminated the entangled legacies of freedom and enslavement at the site where Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. Each glance held the weight of history, unsettling familiar narratives of liberty, power, and independence.
At the corner of 7th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, the site where Thomas Jefferson and Robert Hemmings lived during the summer of 1776 was transformed into a striking public artwork for the summer and fall of 2024. Monument Lab’s Declaration House project, presented in partnership with Independence National Historical Park and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s Monticello, featured the premiere of Sonya Clark’s “The Descendants of Monticello.” This multichannel video installation projects the blinking eyes of Hemmings’ collateral descendants, along with those of others connected to the more than 400 people enslaved at Monticello, including descendants biologically related to Jefferson. In their collective gaze, the house itself became a living monument, reckoning with the contradictions at the nation’s founding. Open June 24 through December 1, 2024, Declaration House also included a public Welcome Station and participatory programs, inviting visitors to respond to the question: What does the Declaration of Independence mean to us today?
https://monumentlab.com/projects/declaration-house
https://monumentlab.com/publications/declaration-house-exhibition-guide
Details
Building or project owner : Independence National Historical Park
Project artist/ concept/ design/ planning : Monument Lab with lead artist Sonya Clark and curators Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Paul Farber, and Yolanda Wisher
Display content/ visuals/ showreel : MING Media
Project co-ordination : Kerry Bickford and Amelia Carter for Monument Lab
Project sponsor/ support : Major support for Declaration House has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from VIA Art Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Lead project partners include Independence National Historical Park and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s Monticello and its Getting Word African American Oral History Project. Additional in-kind support provided by Wawa Welcome America, A2A Media, and Clear Channel Outdoor.
Descriptions
Urban situation : Declaration House sits on the busy 7th Street corridor in Philadelphia, a site layered with significance yet often overlooked. Though the house is a National Park Service property, it has been closed to the public for years, leaving a void in the city’s historic landscape. The site stands at the edge of Independence National Historical Park, where millions pass annually, but without access to its interior or history. By situating "The Descendants of Monticello" as an exterior-facing installation, the project transformed a dormant, inaccessible house into a civic interface. The blinking eyes on the facade animated a shuttered site, creating a dialogue with the street and returning the house to public life. In doing so, the project reframed the corridor as a living archive of freedom and enslavement, authorship and erasure, belonging and exclusion.
Description of showreel : "The Descendants of Monticello" unfolds as a monumental montage of eyes: contemporary video portraits of descendants of Robert Hemmings and the more than 400 people enslaved at Monticello. On screens filling the windows of Declaration House, the showreel cycles through these eyes as they open, blink, and gaze outward onto Philadelphia’s historic 7th Street corridor and Market Street. The sequence is intentionally minimal yet profoundly human. Each eye becomes both a portrait and a witness, holding the weight of history, acknowledging absence, and insisting on presence. The rhythm of blinking collapses centuries, weaving together those who lived in bondage, their descendants, and passersby in the present. The gaze follows commuters, residents, and tourists, transforming the closed historic house into a living monument.
Participatory architecture & urban interaction
Community or communities involved : Declaration House was shaped in collaboration with a wide circle of communities, including Independence National Historical Park and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Central to the project are the descendants documented through Monticello’s Getting Word African American Oral History Project, whose eyes appear in Sonya Clark’s installation “The Descendants of Monticello.” The project engaged local communities through public programs, creative residencies, and a Welcome Station where visitors shared their own reflections. Programmatic Partners included the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club, Free Library of Philadelphia, Harriet’s Bookshop, Independence Historical Trust, Independence Visitor Center, Lenapehoking Reestablishment Project, Mural Arts Philadelphia, PhillyCAM, Wawa Welcome America, and WHYY.
Issues addressed : Declaration House brought to the forefront the intertwined histories of freedom and enslavement at the site where the Declaration of Independence was drafted. The project addressed the contradictions between the nation’s founding ideals and the lived realities of people held in bondage, centering the overlooked presence of Robert Hemmings and his descendants. Through Sonya Clark’s artwork and public participation, the exhibition explored legacy, memory, and the ongoing question of what independence and equality mean today.
Next steps : Declaration House will continue to spark reflection and dialogue beyond the run of the exhibition through a forthcoming book that will document the project and Sonya Clark’s artwork. This publication will expand on the central question "What does the Declaration of Independence mean to us today?" and share insights to inform future public history and art initiatives leading up to the nation’s Semiquincentennial in 2026.
Mediacredits
Steve Weinik/Monument Lab
Steve Weinik/Monument Lab
Steve Weinik/Monument Lab
Monument Lab