Embodied Landscape
Embodied Landscape is a multimedia project that reflects on the history and memory of a lost architectural landmark in Buffalo: The Marble Temple. Built in 1913 as M&T Bank’s former headquarters, the White Marble Temple once stood as an iconic four-story structure adorned with magnificent white marble interiors. Demolished in 1959, remnants of its marble columns now exist in two locations: as memorials at Baird Point on the University at Buffalo’s North Campus and scattered across Buffalo’s Outer Harbor at Wilkeson Pointe Park.
The project explores the imaginative act of reconstructing lost places. Through film, dance, music, poetry, and locative media, Embodied Landscape reimagines architecture as fluid and shaped by poetic interpretation and performance within its fragmented sites. A mobile app was designed to incorporate Naila Ansari’s performances on-site, using her movements to reflect on the memory of the building and its significance. The film captures tactile and sensory interactions between the human body and the marble stones, juxtaposing the female form with the remnants of the Temple to create an evocative, imaginary landscape.
By merging physical presence with the memory of the lost structure, Embodied Landscape offers a meditative reflection on the intersection of place, history, and embodied experience.