Item
Project

Grounded

A man in a loose white shirt and wide pale trousers stands among a thicket of banana leaves, palms, and potted greens, a big silver watering can in his hand. Beside him a blue metal cart is crowded with seedlings, and a yellow diamond sign in the leaves reads “GROW.”
Title
Grounded
Artist
Ron Finley
Date
2024
Description
A large-scale garden installation commissioned for the Hammer Museum exhibition Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice (2024–25), the largest work in the show. South Los Angeles environmental activist Ron Finley, known as the “Gangsta Gardener,” planted a terrace outside the museum's bookstore and galleries with fruit trees, vegetables, and herbs, some growing in salvaged bathtubs and sinks, and set out about two dozen chairs for visitors. A “Redline Realty” sign recalls the housing discrimination that shaped Los Angeles neighborhoods, and plant markers carry the names of people killed by police. The work extends Finley's practice of turning neglected urban ground into food gardens as an act of community care and self-determination. After the exhibition, its soil and materials were returned to the artist.
Artwork Type
Installation
Environmental Art
Materiality
Living Organisms
Plant Materials
Soil
Found / Salvaged Materials
Climate & Ecology Themes
Food Systems and Seed Sovereignty
Environmental Justice
Environmental Racism
Urban Landscapes and Infrastructures
Concepts
Care and Reciprocity
Healing and Repair
Ecological Domain / Habitat
Urban
Methods & Approaches
Community-Based Practice
Social Practice
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Community
Location
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California
Geographic Scope
Site-Specific / Single Site
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Website
W Magazine
Affiliated Organizations
Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice, Hammer Museum
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Los Angeles
Media
A man in a loose white shirt and wide pale trousers stands among a thicket of banana leaves, palms, and potted greens, a big silver watering can in his hand. Beside him a blue metal cart is crowded with seedlings, and a yellow diamond sign in the leaves reads “GROW.”Ron Finley, Grounded