hot air
Bay Ridge through an Ecological Lens is a multi-faceted public art exhibition hosted by Stand4 Gallery and presented in collaboration with ecoartspace
This interactive, public, community arts exhibition is curated by Jennifer McGregor, featuring artists Rebecca Allan, Aaron Asis, Chris Costan, Kate Dodd, Peter Edlund, Kristin Reiber-Harris, Ellen Coleman-Izzo, Sergey Jivetin, Nathan Kensinger, Rita Leduc, Christopher Lin, Nikki Lindt, E.J. McAdams/ Jimbo Blachly, Nancy Nowacek in collaboration with Carla Kihlstedt and Carlos Alomar, Benjamin Swett and filmmakers: Aaron Assis, Nate Dorr, Sean Hanley, Nathan Kensinger, Nikki Lindt, Emily Packer and Lesley Steele, and Kristin Reiber-Harris
It consists of nature walks and community interventions in the gallery and various locations throughout the Bay Ridge community from April 15 through June 17, 2023. Art Spiel features a series of interviews related to this project throughout its duration. Kate Dodd, whose library installation will be until after Labor Day, is featured here.
Tell us about your work in this project.
The Bay Ridge Tree Collection is a collaborative artwork at the 73rd St. public library in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The installation is intended to acquaint Bay Ridge residents with the climate resilience features in their neighborhood. Bay Ridge is rich in street trees per block compared to other NYC neighborhoods. This is important because street trees make a community more resilient in the face of climate change. Street trees reduce stormwater runoff, improve air quality, store carbon, provide shade, and facilitate the urban heat-island effect.
This site-specific installation consists of two paper “trees” in the lobby that expand up onto the windows of the two story facade. The bark and branches feature text describing every Bay Ridge street tree species, as recorded on the NYC Parks Dept. street tree map. A mini book collection, housed in the tree knotholes and accessible for browsing, documents individual Bay Ridge street trees; these were made by a variety of Bay Ridge residents who were invited to participate by choosing a Bay Ridge street tree to honor and collecting a few observations/artifacts for inclusion in a mini book dedicated to that particular tree. These books will become part of the library’s permanent collection.
About the artist:
Kate Dodd creates both temporary and permanent site-specific installations, and has exhibited her artwork nationally in museums, galleries, and colleges. She was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship grant in 2020 from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, and has been awarded multiple residencies, including MacDowell and numerous schools in the tri-state area. Kate has commissioned works at five NJ Transit stations, and has created three commissions for Summit Public Arts. She completed a site-specific commission for the Redwood City Public Library Children’s Room in 2021, and is currently working on a commission for Rowan University. Her works celebrate the transformation of materials and the hidden patterns of human habits.