is a community project inviting viewers to conceptualize and cope with the climate crisis. Through art that situates viewers in realities radically different from their own, the gallery uses a multi-scale pedagogy to relate different assemblages of our ecosystem without hierarchies. Fittingly, in a community driven-space, these hierarchies will be discussed, challenged, and meditated on as a collective; with a stress on climate change being evitable.

As you walk through the garden, pay attention to the story that unfolds; perhaps viewers will see textiles, nature, and the non-human world as being animated, breathing forces. Or perhaps they will learn new ways to think about incorporating ancestral practice into their own lives. From craft to fine arts, Riveting Roots offers a way to re-think our positionality, habits, and perspectives within our multi species world.

Highlighting activists, indigenous knowledge systems, local artists, and scientists, the Riveting Roots journey has 3 overarching themes as regions of the garden: decentering the human, reindigenization from white patriarchal structures, and eco-imaginaries. The theme of decentering the human includes pieces that reveal non-human subjects not merely as tertiary characters but as actors with their own agency and spirit, revealing multiple ways of being that exist in the universe as part of a plural, intermeshed whole. Keeping this in mind, reindigenization emphasizes the material realities of colonial climate change*, the importance of local and untold stories/practices/movements, and problems of equity to reveal tangible ways of honoring indigenous practice. Through eco-imaginaries, craft is then reframed as an actual tool for understanding the planet, our place in the world as humans, and how to envision a better future.

Hopefully, in experiencing this exhibit, you will have a different relationship with the clothes you wear, objects around you, and the present-historical relations of equity. Through Riveting Roots, the relationally of things in our eco-system becomes omnipresent; and much more moving than the nihilism associated with climate change. Take a trip to and through the garden. Smell, touch, feel, and enjoy.

*coined by Dominique Drakeford

Open October 4-17, 2025. Free to the public. On view at Clifton Place Memorial Garden in Brooklyn, New York.

Consider donating or getting involved with Artists for Palestine here: https://art4palestine.org

Mission

To activate community green spaces with mindful works by local artists that dissect and negotiate the climate crisis as it relates to our 3 sub themes: Decentering the Human, Reindigenization, Eco-Imaginaries. Riveting Roots is meant to represent a positive, action-oriented space by elevating artists and ensuring free and public access to relevant workshops as well as clothing and food donations, by and for the community.

Activations

• Sounds by Becca Rodriguez & Cal Fish, October 4th
• Communal Braiding with Cassandra Maya Allen to be hung as a collective contribution to the exhibit, October 4th
• Sketch Class with Sam Bailenson-Friedman, October 11th
• Free vegetables and herbs provided by the gardeners, Daily
• Free closet provided by community clothing donations, Daily