Tyshan Wright: Maroon Hill

MFA Thesis Exhibition, Emily Carr University of Art + Design

Maroon Hill is a multisensory contemporary craft installation that explores Jamaican Maroon heritage through the ceremonial unravelling of crocus, a coarse textile my ancestors repurposed for clothing and protection in Jamaica and during their 1796 exile to Halifax. Historically used to transport plantation commodities such as sugar and coffee, crocus carries the material history of colonial extraction while also embodying Maroon ingenuity, survival, and transformation. Responding to historical narratives that have characterized Maroon material culture as “meagre,” the work centers a freestanding hill built through the slow, strand-by-strand unraveling of crocus, asserting the depth and resourcefulness of Maroon making practices. When installed in a gallery, visitors are invited to unravel red crocus and contribute to the growing form, while ongoing ceremonial work with brown crocus continues at Maroon heritage sites. Engaging the senses through sound, texture, and the earthy scent of the fibers, this shared act connects participants to histories of adaptation and resilience. By merging site-based ceremonial practice with public participation, Maroon Hill becomes a living, evolving artwork that bridges historical memory and contemporary art while reasserting Maroon presence within landscapes where it has been diminished.