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We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider supporting us as a member. Join Us As the elevator doors open out to the Whitney Museum’s top floor, 18 living citrus trees come into view.
The installation , a reprisal of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison’s project Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard (1972/2024), appears bright and airy but also regimented. The trees — growing varieties of lemons and limes, oranges and grapefruits — have been organized into a three-by-six grid, each tree situated inside a planter made from reclaimed redwood. With their clean geometry and overhead grow lights, the planters resemble indoor gardening kits purchased at a big box store.
It’s an aesthetic that’s at once visually harmonious and conceptually discordant, a calm and orderly response to the dystopian possibilities of climate upheaval. Prompt.