Turbulence, Brooklyn Botanic
Public Art —
An immersive sculptural and sonic installation attuning us to the unseen stress of the natural world.
Commissioned by Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Turbulence 2025 is a site-specific public artwork by Suchi Reddy that translates the invisible stress signals of our environment into a powerful multi-sensory experience. Situated at a central crossroads within BBG’s Plant Family Collection, the work features two mirrored passageways that create shifting reflections of the surrounding landscape—an architectural expression of ecological turbulence.
Accompanied by an ethereal soundscape composed with Malloy James, the piece draws on emerging research in plant bioacoustics, including studies showing that stressed plants emit high-frequency clicks. These ultrasonic distress signals, normally imperceptible to the human ear, are rendered here into sonic and visual form—inviting visitors to “feel” the planet’s fragility through distortion, resonance, and reflection.
Rooted in Reddy’s signature ethos, form follows feeling, the installation makes the emotional urgency of climate change visible, audible, and experiential. The design creates a space for contemplation, while fostering a deeper sensory awareness of the living systems we often overlook. Visitors can pass through the sculpture’s reflective corridors or rest on integrated benches to experience the Garden through a new lens.
Turbulence 2025 continues Reddymade’s inquiry into neuroaesthetics—the science of how environments affect the brain and body—by using architectural form to provoke empathy, insight, and environmental consciousness.
On view through Fall 2025 at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
“Turbulence 2025 is a work about listening to our environments—deeply, emotionally, and biologically. It’s about attuning to the distress signals of a living world under strain. Plants communicate when they are stressed. They emit high-frequency clicks, beyond the range of human hearing, that other species may perceive. I wanted to take that invisible sound and give it form—both visually and sonically—so that we might begin to feel the urgency that surrounds us in ways we’ve never quite heard or seen.”
