Stephanie Beck | Bough

Stephanie Beck’s site-responsive, sound-based exhibition Bough features abstract sculptural “drawings” made from processed wood, branches and dried plants collected at Wave Hill. Accompanied by the songs of eight regional migratory birds experiencing population declines, the soundscape is designed to silence when visitors enter the Sunroom, emphasizing the impact of our manipulation of the natural world that contributes to the habitat loss of people, plant and animal species. With titles that reference organisms, ligaments, care, the atmosphere, as well as a world beyond, Beck's hybrid entities move between the natural and human realms to locate our current era of human impact on the Earth through the senses. Just as the bird songs return after a pause of human activity in the Sunroom, Beck suggests with an air of optimism that we may yet be able to repair the damage we have inflicted upon nature with the very tools used to cause her harm.

Organized by Curator of Visual Arts Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger, the Sunroom Project Space is an open call opportunity for New York-area artists to develop and exhibit a site-specific project as a solo show. The 2024 applications were reviewed by a panel of arts professionals including Kiara Cristina Ventura, writer, curator and founder of the roving curatorial platform Processa; Jacq Groves, 2023 Sunroom Project Space interdisciplinary artist and educator; and Gugelberger.