This project began in 2020 as an invitation by MoMA PS1 to activate the front facade wall of the museum with a new socially-engaged project. This process started with self-reflection and interrogation, confronting how we are collectively facing our fires. From its inception, the goal was to create a public-facing artwork that is reflective of community. Utilizing the wall not as medium or a barrier - but as a mirror, reflecting the images and thoughts of those who live and care for their communities back into the landscape in which they reside. Imperative to this project was opening up this conversation as discourse to those in our families and communities taking on active change to better our futures. What had started as discourse and self interrogation lead to audacious dreaming about how we can support one another in growth towards the future…

This mural is a prelude to an ongoing larger work. Its title, “What Grows?”, is the idea that we are opening up as the imperative question we are facing as we think about the world emerging from metaphorical fires.

The person depicted in this piece is Kelly Dennis, a member of Shinnecock nation, an attorney and council woman making deliberate and active change and providing a counter to colonial institutions as a leader.