This past weekend the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) opened …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting…, a major site-specific exhibition of sculptural and horticultural installations by visual artist Ebony G. Patterson that is the result of a yearslong engagement with the Botanical Garden to explore its collections and settings. As the first visual artist ever to embed within the institution for an immersive residency, Patterson worked directly with the Garden’s grounds and collections to form a new body of work that includes sculptures, installations, and interventions with living plants, bringing her unique perspective on formal gardens to life in the galleries and landscape of the Garden’s 250-acre National Historic Landmark site. The exhibition is on view now through Sunday, September 17, 2023.
As the title suggests, …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting… pivots on the tension of transitional states, exploring the idea of molting, shedding, and decay as revelatory processes with the potential to give way to healing, regeneration, and beauty. Forming both a sumptuous visual experience and an insightful societal critique, the exhibition celebrates and embraces the allure of the beautiful while contemplating what lies beneath the enticing surface, unearthing the complex tensions of the natural world and how they reflect entanglements of race, gender, and colonialism.
“The opportunity to work directly within The New York Botanical Garden, using its collections and landscape as inspiration, provided the opportunity to bring many elements of my practice together,” noted artist Ebony G. Patterson. “I’ve long worked with the idea of gardens, but this direct intervention allowed us to begin to literally peel back the landscape to look not only at the plants on the surface but also explore what lies beneath, and the generative life cycles that sustain the entire ecosystem. The plants and animals that clean, regenerate, and consume as an act of care are necessary for the survival of the entire ecosystem. This reality of the garden is often not highlighted and celebrated, an experience that is paralleled in many areas of society and a tension at the heart of my practice overall.”
…things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting… will uproot the verdant, colorful, and enticing elements of gardens—floral displays rich with color and fragrance that embrace the life cycle of plants through the seasons—with bold and provocative disruptions. As visitors approach the Haupt Conservatory, hundreds of glittering vultures appear to have descended like shadows, gathering among blood-red, wound-like ruptures that interrupt a flowery expanse of purple summer snapdragon, lime-green zinnia, orange Mexican sunflower, deep burgundy cosmos, and other richly-colored blooms. From this outdoor component of the monumentally-scaled installation on the Lawn, visitors pass into the Conservatory, where the installation continues.
“Ebony G. Patterson’s exhibition at The New York Botanical Garden marks an exciting moment for us as an institution, as we were able to provide a platform for one of the most compelling artists of our time to explore the complex symbolism of gardens and the fractured human relationship with nature,” said Jennifer Bernstein, CEO and The William C. Steere Sr. President of The New York Botanical Garden. “Patterson’s work will entice, disarm, and provoke visitors, and we look forward to the dialogue and conversations that will unfold.”
Images courtesy of the New York Botanical Garden.
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