Free Art Exhibit “Alter Eco” on Display at Arsenal Gallery

Photo: Dendrostalkers (still from video), 2022 by Julia Oldham

Artists envision alternate realities to inspire environmental care in this innovative and interactive group exhibition

September 13, 2024 – November 7, 2024

NYC Parks is pleased to present the group exhibition ALTER ECO, featuring artists evoking alternate environmental realities, using innovative approaches and materials to encourage environmental stewardship. 

Wielding technology, scientific research, and invention, these artists tackle one of the great issues facing climate activists: inspiring care beyond one’s own lifetime. Works in this exhibition help facilitate an alternate experience of our environment, allowing for deeper connection across space and time. 

The interactive work Tomorrow’s Sea, (2024) by Edrex Fontanilla and Sarah Nelson Wright, creates a virtual reality “empathy machine” to foster connections between viewers and locations that are endangered by sea level rise. The scent-based work, A Garden with No Flowers, (2023) by Emma Gasterland Gustafsson, offers a glimpse into a far-off future devoid of all organic matter, where scientists attempt to resurrect the sense—and scents—of relaxation that ancient populations experienced when convening in community gardens. 

Evgenia Emets’ Eternal Forest project establishes forest sanctuaries as artwork to be protected. Emets’ text-based works help us grasp the time scale of an old growth forest, sending us backward and forward 1000 years. In the Undiscovered City, (2019) series, Julia Oldham presents collaged futures for New York City sites inspired by interviews she conducted with local environmental stewards. Oldham’s narrative video, Dendrostalkers, (2022) imagines a world in which trees have evolved to transcend the three-dimensional world to escape destruction by humans. 

This exhibition is FREE and open to the public. For more information, visit nyc.gov/parks/art. 

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 12, 2024, at 6 p.m. 

The Arsenal Gallery, Central Park 

Fifth Avenue & 64th Street, 3rd Floor 

MANHATTAN