‘Social Works’ Exhibition
Gagosian Gallery, New York City - 2021
First Operational Gallery Farm to Provide Fresh Produce to Under Resourced Urban Communities
Designed in collaboration with artist and food activist Linda Goode Bryant, the installation ‘Are we really that different?’ included a fully operational urban farm located in the middle of a New York City. Presented alongside a new video that reflects on the legacy of Just Above Midtown — the gallery founded by Bryant in 1974 was among the first to focus on work by artists of color — the installation brings two chapters of the artist’s fifty-year career into dialogue.
The urban farm was conceived as a prototype for Project EATS, the organization established by Bryant in 2009 to give every person the opportunity to “live healthily and to thrive.” The installation converts the sanitized space of the gallery into a site of agricultural production.
The installation was part of ‘Social Works’ at the Gagosian Gallery curated by critic Antwaun Sargent
Over 800 Pounds of Produce
An existing gallery skylight — a feature typically used to showcase art — serves as life support for a “sliver farm” nestled in a sixteen-foot-tall structure suspended below it. The structure holds soil beds planted with a variety of edible plants. The water line of a nearby janitorial sink is extended to the farm, irrigating the soil with a nutrient mixture delivered by intravenous-drip bags.
