Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
This paper examines the use of horticulture and botany in Ebony Patterson's 2023 exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden, …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting… as it relates to the history of NYBG, the Bronx, and the populations that historically and currently reside in the borough. Using plants, blown glass, and glittering styrofoam forms, Patterson productively intervenes in the relationship between an historic, prestigious institution and a changed borough that, since the 1990s, has been walled off from the Garden. The exhibition highlights the tension between community and institution and offers up a new way of understanding how and why the vibrant populations of the Bronx belong in the Garden. In this article, I read Patterson’s exhibit as a response to the history of the Garden, the history of the Bronx, and the history of botanical collecting to illuminate how her work reclaims public space for collective reckoning.
