​Opening:  Sat. Sept 7th, 6 - 9 pm 

Exhibition Hours: Thurs-Fridays 1 - 6 pm  |  Sat & Sundays: 1 - 4 pm

(Mon-Wed.: by appointment only.  To visit, please contact us at: sundaykitchenspace@gmail.com)

Location:  9th & Thomas, 234 9th Ave, Seattle ​(map)

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Works by: Esteban Agosin, Mauricio Garcia, Karey Kessler, Soyoung Lee, Francesca Lohmann,

Yoko Ono, Shin Yu Pai, Rob Rhee, Sadaf Sadri, Shelby Silver, Alex Vittum

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Garden of Our Time: Vanishing Species, Imminent Communities  begins with a shared experience that cuts through the present moment: disappearing species from the earth and our collective memory.  The current rate of biodiversity loss is accelerating, creating a profound impact on our ecosystems and our place within them.  Characterized by the unprecedented climate crisis emerging as the zeitgeist, the exhibition explores our relationship to the larger ecological sphere and interdependence with the non-human world.  This exhibit moves away from the anthropocentric mindset that distinguishes between human and non-human, nature and culture; as nature vanishes so too does culture, and with it, history, embodied knowledge, and an archive of words.

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The exhibition stems from the question of what it means to live together in a time of erasure.  How do you tell the story of loss in the midst of an unfolding crisis while facilitating a space for another future?  In the opening chapter of Timothy Morton's All Art is Ecological, he posits that we may already be living in an age of "mass extinction," in which human activity has ushered in a new epoch.  Departing from an apocalyptic worldview, as well as from Western models of environmentalism that have been well-critiqued, All Art is Ecological considers the increasing ecological awareness in art  and how it facilitates a space for attunement. 

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Non-human Species as Collaborators, Artists as Facilitators

Informed by the emergence of this new epoch, the exhibition explores art as a site of gathering for resonance and attunement, anticipating modes of being based on shared vulnerability and a community of interconnectedness that is yet to come.  The ten artists in the show take on the role of translators, observers, priests, and collaborators of non-human species and facilitate a space for attunement.  Artists often notice what others might overlook, and by paying close attention, they trace unseen connections and associations. The art on display engages multi-sensory modes of understanding—visual, sonic, poetic, and olfactory—illuminating the invisible and formless aspects of vanishing pasts and disappearing futures. Plants, scents, and seawater molecules become collaborators rather than mere objects, while poets guide us to think within the spaces between absence and presence, transcending binary thought. Through these collaborations, the works reveal the fragile and untenable landscapes of our rapidly changing environment, deepening our attunement to non-human species and their unseen phenomena.

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Engaging the Garden as a Contested Site

The garden has often served as a space of care and solace, offering refuge and sustenance in times of war, and operating as a site of resistance. Yet, the history of the garden is also deeply rooted in colonial expansion, extraction, and taxonomy—legacies that continue to manifest as exclusion and privilege. Garden of Our Time seeks to redefine the garden by dislocating it from its traditional trajectory and reimagining it as an ecological, relational, and multi-temporal space. By emphasizing the fluidity between nature and culture, the exhibition reframes the position of humans within a more symbiotic relationship with non-humans. The artists in this exhibition prioritize the often-overlooked timelines of plants and the earth—from geological eras to the cyclical rhythms of flowers—transforming their works into vessels for multiple temporalities and significations. By renaming species in decolonial ways and focusing on everyday plant species, the works challenge the garden's long history of colonial hierarchy, weaving a sense of horizontality and a broader sense of belonging.

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At its core, the exhibition aims to reflect on human-non-human interdependence in a multimodal way, exploring hidden forms of interconnectedness with the non-human world. By making the familiar new, and the unfamiliar accessible, it activates our senses and facilitates a space for attunement and communion. Garden of Our Time: Vanishing Species, Imminent Communities invites visitors to expand their ecological imagination and deepen their connection with the non-human world.

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Accessibility: The event spaces (the exhibitionance venue) are wheelchair accessible. Please note that the exhibition includes multi-sensory elements, such as and the perform fragrances. 

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​​The exhibition is generously supported by  the City of Seattle and 4 Culture.

 

 

 

 

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For Marina. ​