Rhizomatic

A site-responsive textile installation. Chicago Botanic Garden (2024); Austin Central Library (2025).

Exhibition Overview

Rhizomatic is a site-responsive textile installation. Each iteration is built around the plants of its venue and draws on the rhizome as a philosophical figure for non-hierarchical, multi-rooted connection (after Deleuze and Guattari).

Awards & Support

Chicago Botanic Garden

Commissioned Artist

City of Austin

Elevate Grant Recipient

UNESCO

City of Media Arts Grant

Exhibition History

Chicago Botanic Garden

Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden and the Farm on Ogden • June 1 – September 22, 2024

Medium: Installation art, digital prints on linen, photography, collage, graphic design, and illustration

Rhizomatic is a collaborative art installation between Essentials Creative collective and the scientists and staff at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The project is inspired by the rhizome as a philosophical concept developed by theorists Deleuze and Guattari. The installation weaves together cultural and scientific stories about diversity and collaboration. Featured plants in the artwork include ginkgo biloba, pawpaw, horsetail, white sage, eastern prairie fringed orchid, kernza, and amaranth. We aim to contribute to multicultural perspectives on plants, share the Garden's scientific research, and explore rhizomes as a metaphor for interconnectedness.

Austin Central Library

Roof Garden (6th Floor) • October 2–8, 2025

An installation of 20 double-sided tapestries on native Tejas plants, presented at the Austin Central Library Roof Garden, October 2–8, 2025. Each tapestry pairs botanical imagery with cultural and ecological reference.

Featured Texas Native Plants:

  • Maguey — sustaining plant of arid Mesoamerica; food, drink, and fiber
  • Nopal — prickly pear cactus; food and medicine across the Tejas–México borderlands
  • Purple Coneflower — Tejas wildflower long used in traditional medicine
  • Amaranth — sacred grain in pre-conquest Mesoamerican cuisine; revived contemporary food source
  • Chili Pequin — wild Tejas pepper; foundational to Indigenous and Tex-Mex cuisines

Featured Works

Rhizomatic installation view at Chicago Botanic Garden showing suspended textile works with botanical imagery
Detail view of Rhizomatic textile work featuring Indigenous plant knowledge and cultural symbolism
Wide angle view of complete Rhizomatic installation showing collaborative textile and botanical research

Installation Documentation

Explore our immersive installations across different venues and cultural contexts

Chicago Botanic Garden

Austin Central Library

High-resolution images and complete documentation available upon request

About Essentials Creative

Essentials Creative: Indigenous American, Latin American, and Asian artists creating new narratives about belonging and place. We blend cultural reclamation with artistic innovation, building contemporary folklore that honors the past while imagining alternative relationships with Texas landscapes.

Our collaborative multimedia installations bridge cultural knowledge systems with contemporary artistic practice, creating spaces for cultural dialogue and environmental awareness through immersive experiences that have been exhibited at major botanical gardens, libraries, and cultural institutions across the United States.

Learn more about the collective →

Contact

For exhibition inquiries, technical specifications, or educational programming:

essentialscreative@gmail.com