RHIZOMATIC
Essentials Creative
Thursday, October 2, 2025
- Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Central Library - 710 W. César Chávez St.
Roof Garden (6th Floor)
About the Exhibit
RHIZOMATIC
Exploring Texas Native Plants through Indigenous and Immigrant Perspectives
Essentials Creative invites the public to experience Rhizomatic—an immersive installation of 10–15 double-sided tapestries exploring native Texas plants through artistic interpretation and symbolic storytelling. Each tapestry weaves together contemporary Indigenous and immigrant perspectives with botanical research, creating layered connections between culture, ecology, and reciprocity with the land. Visitors are invited to see familiar native plants in unique ways and to interact with an installation that honors ancestral knowledge while inspiring future relationships with the land.
TEXAS NATIVE PLANTS REPRESENTED:
•Maguey - Ancient sustainer reimagined through contemporary Latinx and Indigenous lenses
•Nopal - Border-crossing survivor, symbol of resilience for immigrant communities
•Purple Coneflower - Medicine transformed into metaphor for cultural healing
•Amaranth - Sacred grain reborn as symbol of cultural revival and resistance
•Chili Pequin - Wild fire carrier, connecting ancestral knowledge to contemporary identity
About the Artist
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.
This project is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department