Seasons of Kinship
Year: 2025
Seasons of Kinship, a dual show by Cyrah Dardas and Mother Cyborg, explores the power, temporality, and ebb and flow of relations within our ecosystem. Using natural materials grown by each artist, this exhibition is a testament to the intertwining and understanding between humans, land, and the ecosystem. A dinner table, a symbol of reverence, honors the lost knowledge and hidden stories in plant life. Using natural dyes and paints in the tapestries and paintings reflects the reciprocity and symbiotic practices our human and non-human kin can create in relation. The artists' work is a radical yet inspiring way of imagining a generative and knowledge-sharing approach to our relationships with each other and the environment. For Mother Cyborg, her work was about the hidden stories and knowledge within the land that have accumulated over time, and how we unlock those stories through various relationships with each other and ourselves within our environments.
The Quilts
I Am Freer For Believing in Change
Polaroid Quilt
The Ceramics
"Seasons of Kinship: Dinner Table" is a handcrafted meditation on legacy and land. Inspired by Judy Chicago’s "Dinner Party," this work reimagines the dinner table as a platform for knowledge sharing rooted in the natural world rather than solely in human achievements or representation. By celebrating the plants that have inspired or supported each artist, the work emphasizes a connection to the land within the act of gathering and storytelling. The table offers a place for reflecting on the journeys of each participant around the table and each element on the table.
The work features two dinner tables, each with a distinct formation and purpose. The first table is hexagonal, accommodating twelve settings that showcase plants that have nourished the artists in various ways—through health, sustenance, or relationship-building. Each ceramic plate is imprinted with plant life from the artists’ gardens, travels, or walks. These plates represent essential connections and honor these plants as esteemed guests in the shared narrative of the work. The place settings serve as a starting point for storytelling and knowledge sharing among guests, allowing the unique stories of each plant to emerge through our cultural, medicinal, and migratory memories. The second table is shaped like a triangle and features the Three Sisters—corn, beans, and squash—who embody the lessons of symbiosis and collaboration that nature provides. This triangular table symbolizes the artists’ admiration for cooperative relationships within ecosystems, encouraging reflections on interdependence and mutual care.
The piece combines ceramics, quilting, natural dye, metalwork, and woodworking, with every element made entirely by hand. The quilted table settings and hand-dyed covering recall the labor and care of tradition, the silverware transforms the act of dining into a ritual of knowledge sharing and gratitude, and the tables serve as grounding anchors. In this space, land, memory, and community converge. This piece asks us to consider: What plant relationships sustain you, and how do you sustain them? What stories do we leave behind for future generations? What can our relationships with the land and plants teach us about our relationships with each other?
This work aims to inspire a deeper recognition of the natural world and its central role in shaping our lives and relationships. In a time when our ties to the earth and each other feel increasingly fragile, Seasons of Kinship Dinner Table stands as a testament to the enduring power of care, reciprocity, and shared experience.
Ceramics Plates, Ceramic Cups, Ceramic Silverware Handles, and Quilted Table Settings: Mother Cyborg
Table Design, Hand-Dyed Tablecloths and Napkins, Wooden Handles, and Candles: Cyrah Dardas
Silverware Fabrication: Emmett Armand
Table Design and Construction: Henry Crissman
Production and Design Assistance: Cristina Squatriti, Ruby Mcinnis, Virginia Torrence, Nina Shahin, Jon Ward
