Shadow Song is a site-specific video installation confronting the legacy of slavery embedded within Jesus College, Cambridge.

Projected directly onto the chapel memorial of Tobias Rustat (1608–1694)—a prominent benefactor of the college and a major investor in the Royal African Company, which trafficked enslaved people—the work intervenes in a contested space of historical memory. Despite calls for its removal, including a formal petition from the current Master of the College, the memorial remains in place. Shadow Song navigates the tension between the persistence of historical trauma and the possibilities of remembrance, reckoning, and forgiveness.

Featuring: Rosalie Roechert

Special Thanks to Jesus College, the University of Cambridge.

Screenings:

Dante’s Inferno Immersive Theatre Festival at Jesus College, April 2025