Better Angels is a playful invitation for viewers to envision their best selves with a newly-met fellow participant as witness.
Socially engaged, but anchored in sculptural form, Better Angels brings people together with openness, empathy, and understanding.
Through a facilitated engagement at the gates of heaven, visitors reflect on an ideal they strive towards and what holds them back from achieving it. After they share their ideals and their limitations with a partner-visitor as witness, Pete, Head of Security, grants them membership into heaven and offers them space to reflect on what the grace of sanctuary feels like, despite the problems we face, both individually and collectively. Better Angels invites us to envision our best selves for one another, the city, and the nation during the United States’ Semi-quincentennial.
“Though this history won't be explicit when people are engaging with the piece, the title of the project conjures up Abraham Lincoln’s failed appeal for unity on the eve of the Civil War. It's there in the background of the experience to remind us that the promises of 1776 couldn't even carry the nation to its first centennial without rupture. And suggesting that it takes all of us acknowledging our weaknesses, and seeking out the best in ourselves and in one another for the nation to find a healthy future shape,” says artist Heather Kapplow.
“Amid renewed political polarization and racialized conflict, Better Angels draws on Boston’s revolutionary ground to trace a throughline from 1776 to 1861 to today,” says The Triennial, Assistant Curator, Jasper Sanchez. “It reminds us that democracy has always required navigating profound disagreement, and that progress depends on a collective striving toward our best selves.”
Photos by Mel Taing and H Kapplow