Other of Pearl

Open­ing June 14, 2024

Telling the sto­ry of our chang­ing cli­mate through an immer­sive instal­la­tion, Jen­ny Kendler’s Oth­er of Pearl is a site-spe­cif­ic pub­lic art project that will re-enchant New York­ers’ rela­tion­ship with marine ecosys­tems. This exhib­it, pre­sent­ed by Gov­er­nors Island Arts and NRDC (Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil), con­sid­ers the oys­ter and whale as cen­tral play­ers in the eco­log­i­cal entan­gle­ment between human and non­hu­man beings and water­ways and flows of cap­i­tal, and aims to help us trace the extrac­tive his­to­ries that under­line the cli­mate cri­sis. The exhi­bi­tion will invite audi­ences to dis­cov­er a series of inti­mate, del­i­cate art­works inside Gov­er­nors Island’s his­toric Fort Jay Mag­a­zine, a cav­ern-like space that sug­gests a descent below sea level.

In dark­ened rooms that will echo with whale song, vis­i­tors to Oth­er of Pearl will encounter a col­lec­tion of immer­sive, unique works: sea­wa­ter-filled vit­rines con­tain­ing pearl sculp­tures grown inside oys­ters, bells rung by fos­silized whale ear bones, a crys­talline whale eye cast of salt and tears, and glass instru­ments filled with oil tak­en from long dead whales, one of which allows vis­i­tors to sing in the voice of a hump­back. The project will be accom­pa­nied by a range of pub­lic pro­grams and per­for­mances, to be announced in the com­ing weeks. 

Gov­er­nors Island Arts presents its pro­gram with the vision­ary sup­port of the Ford Foun­da­tion, as well the Mel­lon Foun­da­tion, the Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund, Don­ald R. Mullen Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion, Stavros Niar­chos Foun­da­tion, Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies, The Gottes­man Fund, Don­ald A. Pels Char­i­ta­ble Trust, the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts, and the New York State Coun­cil on the Arts with the sup­port of the Office of the Gov­er­nor and the New York State Leg­is­la­ture. Addi­tion­al sup­port for Oth­er of Pearl is pro­vid­ed by the Rip­ple Foun­da­tion as well as Roseate Jewelry.

About the Artist

An inter­dis­ci­pli­nary eco­log­i­cal artist, envi­ron­men­tal activist, nat­u­ral­ist & wild for­ager whose work has been exhib­it­ed nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly at muse­ums, bien­ni­als, pub­lic spaces & nat­ur­al areas, Jen­ny Kendler’s work focus­es on cli­mate change and bio­di­ver­si­ty loss. Her prac­tice seeks to de-cen­ter the human and re-enchant our rela­tion­ship to the more-than human-world. Since 2014, she has been the first Artist-in-Res­i­dence with NRDC, a co-pre­sen­ter of Oth­er of Pearl. Recent exhi­bi­tions of Kendler’s work include Dear Earth at Hay­ward Gallery in Lon­don, UK, Water After All at the MCA Chica­go, Music for Ele­phants at the Smith­son­ian Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, and Indi­ca­tors: Artists on Cli­mate Change at Storm King Art Center. 

About NRDC

NRDC (Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil) is an inter­na­tion­al non­prof­it envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion with more than 3 mil­lion mem­bers and online activists. Estab­lished in 1970, NRDC uses sci­ence, pol­i­cy, law and peo­ple pow­er to con­front the cli­mate cri­sis, pro­tect pub­lic health and safe­guard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Los Ange­les, San Fran­cis­co, Chica­go, Boze­man, MT, Bei­jing and Del­hi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd). Learn more at www​.nrdc​.org.

Getting to Governors Island National Monument

5 Minutes from Soissons Landing 10 Minutes from Yankee Pier

3 Minutes from Soissons Landing 5 Minutes from Yankee Pier