Magdalena Dukiewicz: Bloom

In Bloom, Magdalena Dukiewicz transforms the Sun Porch into a dystopian landscape that combines sound, sculpture, and light to explore the environmental impacts of pollution. Through data sonification, she modulates breathing sounds with real-time fluctuations in NYC’s air quality metrics, creating an abstract, cacophonous soundscape that evokes discomfort and unease. The title “Bloom” contrasts vitality with contamination, reflected in flower-like sculptures made from wood ear mushrooms —long valued in Chinese medicine for detoxifying the body and nourishing the lungs—copper stems, and anthers crafted from the artist’s own hair. In botany, the anther is part of the stamen—the male reproductive organ of a flower that produces pollen. Recast here from women's hair, it takes on rich cultural symbols such as femininity, spirituality, and defiance. The windows and skylights are covered with biomaterials of collagen, glycerin, and red dyes, bathing the room in a crimson glow. Addressing environmental injustice in the South Bronx, where asthma rates are disproportionately high, Bloom offers a powerful meditation on the interconnectedness of body, environment, and resilience.

Interactive programming by Ruimin Liang.

PUBLIC PROGRAM: Sat, Oct 25 , 3:00 PM, Meet the Artist: Magdalena Dukiewicz in Dialogue with Bloom's Soundscape Activation by Paul Steven Ray. 

Organized by Curator of Visual Arts Rachel Raphaela Gugelberger, the Sunroom Project Space is an open call opportunity for New York-area artists to develop and exhibit a site-specific project as a solo exhibition. The 2025 applications were reviewed by a panel of arts professionals including Jordany Genao, a Dominican interdisciplinary artist and educator; Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel, an artist whose practice unfolds performatively through creative experiences within the quotidian, and the founding director of The Interior Beauty Salon, an organism at the intersection of creativity and healing; and Gugelberger.