< Back

Booker T. Washington High School of the Performing and Visual Arts:
Seeds of Memory 
Deep Sea Awareness, The Jellyfish
Night Palms

Installation + Sculpture

Seeds of Memory (2024) is an installation by Zeke Wooten. It features a large blue figure lying on the ground, arms outstretched and head facing the sky. A staircase leads to a glass platform on the figure’s stomach, where viewers can look inside to see illuminated organs, beads, and glass shards. This represents the figure’s core, reflecting how experiences shape one’s identity. Surrounding the figure is an interactive garden of mechanical plants and flowers, symbolizing moments and emotions from the figure's life. Each element is designed to highlight the relationship between the past and present, showing how memories influence current actions and future decisions. The garden’s elements can be manipulated by the viewer, representing how everyday choices shape one’s future.

Deep Sea Awareness, The Jellyfish (2024) by Raymond Hernandez, Cori Johnson, and Willow Solis is a large-scale sculpture of a hot air balloon, designed to resemble a giant jellyfish, floating above a simulated coral reef. This sculpture aims to raise awareness about the increasing amount of toxic waste being thrown into the ocean and its devastating impact on marine life. The sculpture is constructed with repurposed trash, highlighting the pollution problem in our oceans. Transparent and semi-transparent materials are used to mimic the delicate and ethereal nature of jellyfish, with embedded lighting to create a glowing effect. 

Night Palms (2024) is a light installation created by the students of Jessica Bell’s classes. The two illuminated acrylic palms explore how our future and the future of trees might look like. 

Bio

Raymond Hernandez, Cori Johnson, Willow Solis, and Zeke Wooten are Art and Business students from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, TX. These talented students are the winners of AURORA’s open call for student art projects. Their works⁠—an interactive installation by Wooten and a sculpture by ⁠Hernandez, Johnson, and Solis—were exhibited at the 2024 AURORA Biennial.