Sensuous Planet
Sensuous Planet was about bringing to life a vision of an underground city culture deeply attuned to the natural world it inhabits — a culture that understands nature to be sacred and that acts like it. It was a space for getting intimate with the city we all know and love: NYC. To feel its heartbeat, meet its creatures, dip our hands into its rivers, and feel ourselves as a part of its pulse.
Presented during Climate Week NYC, Sensuous Planet served as a sanctuary for integrating the spiritual, emotional, and cultural dimensions of planetary health crisis. The multi-sensory party invited guests to transcend the intellectual discourse and ignite the spirit, heart, and body, awakening channels of often-overlooked emotions, such as grief, hope, and renewal.
Created in collaboration with underground rave activators GROOVY GROOVY, the gathering wove together rave, ritual, spiritual service, performance, and installation. The night opened with a collective ritual and meditation for communion with NYC’s urban nature by Nocturnal Medicine, followed by an energizing spiritual service by radical performance group Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir, calling for a renewed reverence for the planet. Performance artists Madison Wada and Laila Rosen served as energetic guides throughout the evening, helping us go deeper through movement and ritual.
The multi-floor experience invited guests to choose their own journey. In the subterranean section of the loft, GROOVY GROOVY held space for full-bodied catharsis, featuring revered underground DJs Bobby Beethoven (FKA Total Freedom), Kilopatrah Jones, and Akanbi. Upstairs, somatic practitioner Cy X and climate therapists Mor Keshet and Merritt Juliano offered intimate 1:1 sessions for diving deeper into their inner worlds. An installation featuring live sludge from the Gowanus Canal by Elizabeth Henaff and Scope Collective invoked life that thrives in toxicity. In the lofted Prayer Room, artist Grace Jung facilitated an interactive installation for releasing grief and articulating hopes through meditative practice.
Materials: Mushroom Log (Bronx), Seashells (Staten Island), Horseshoe Crabs (Brooklyn), River Waters (Hudson and East Rivers), Composted Food Waste (Manhattan), Asphalt Chunks (New Jersey), Phragmites (New Jersey), Bees (Brooklyn), Styrofoam (Hudson River), Tree Stump (Queens), Living Sludge (Gowanus Canal), Branches (Brooklyn and New Jersey), Stones (New Jersey), Snakeskin (Saugerties, NY), Textiles, Ropes, Glass Jugs, Kiddie Pool
Partners GROOVY GROOVY, CX
Photography Luis Nieto Dickens & Tallulah Schwartz
Location CX, Manhattan, NY
Year 2024
The central installation featured jugs of water collected from the Hudson and East Rivers. In a collective ritual for ecological intimacy, the waters were ceremoniously poured into a clam shell vessel and offered to guests for self-anointment.
Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir called for a renewed reverence of Earth in their sermon-performance.
Grace Jung’s Ediacara sculpture anchored the Prayer Room, where visitors were invited to contribute prayers and reflections to a mobile hanging above.
