Alum Torreya Cummings’ (B.A., ‘99) new show “[Obstructed view of the house through the trees with the road visible on the left side in the foreground.] or black point reinterpretive site” is an immersive, site-responsive installation and replica of a 19th-century Victorian “period room” on view at the Berkeley Art Center. Period rooms function as domestic interior spaces to present a wealthy family’s opulent, and often exotic, treasures. In their installation at Berkeley Art Center, Cummings and artist Sarah Lowe have fashioned theatrical backdrops, handcrafted facsimiles, props, furniture, and created a stage to play out the political dramas of natural history, colonialism, and mechanical interventions into the Northern California landscape from the time of Western expansion to the present day. These fabricated scenes challenge and question how art and artifice, photography and commercialism, have functioned as tools of both history-making and historical erasure. black point reinterpretive Site explores the changes in landscape, in natural species evolution (or extinction), and in the proliferation of industry and development of the Bay Area as a wink to the near-distant past and as a potential warning sign for the future. The massive installation spans the entire gallery and includes sculpture, photography, textiles, soundscapes, and a live fountain, with the heightened artificiality of a theater stage that destabilizes the presumed authority of the museum by being honestly false. Cummings and Lowe invite viewers into this figurative hall of mirrors to better understand where we stand today and how quickly the tides can turn for all of us. 

On view from Dec. 13, 2025-March 29, 2026.

Opening Reception: Saturday, Dec.13, 2025, 3 – 5 pm.