Breath(e)

Toward Climate and Social Justice

January 24 – May 10, 2025

Moody Center for the Arts

The exhibition “Hello Nature – How Best to Live with You?”, featuring gallery artist Brandon Ballengée, illustrates the complex relationship between humans and nature. It asks what happens when humans see themselves as the center of all life and try to rule over the natural world. The presentation traces the history of this skewed relationship: a tale of exploitation, threatened existence – even extinction – but also the desire for preservation. At the same time, the exhibition raises the question of future possibilities for a better, more balanced coexistence.

Part of Getty’s region-wide initiative PST ART: Art and Science Collide, the Hammer presents Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice, organized by guest co-curators Glenn Kaino and Mika Yoshitake. The exhibition considers environmental art practices that address the climate crisis and anthropogenic disasters and their inescapable intersection with equity and social justice issues. Breath(e) was conceived during the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic and America’s racial reckoning in 2020, and as such, explores pressing issues related to the ethics of climate justice while proposing pragmatic and philosophical approaches to spur discussion and resolution. The exhibition strives to challenge and deconstruct polarized political attitudes surrounding climate justice in America and offers new perspectives on land and indigenous rights of nature.  Gallery artist Brandon Ballengée showcases four works from his celebrated MIA (Missing-in-Action) series.