Chicago-based artist Ebony G. Patterson discusses her work ". . . and the dew cracks the earth, in five acts of lamentation . . . between the cuts . . . beneath the leaves . . . below the soil . . . ," a monumental collage that creates an enchanting and lush garden constructed from printed photographs of various species of plants, flowers, and birds.

Inspired by the tradition of paid acts of public mourning — as practiced by ancient Egyptians, among other cultures — Patterson has been interested in how women (and especially, for the artist, Black women) fill social roles of performing sorrow and anguish that are often unacknowledged and unrecorded. In this work, she investigates how toiling the earth’s soil transforms the garden into a site of loss and renewal.

". . . and the dew cracks the earth, in five acts of lamentation . . . between the cuts . . . beneath the leaves . . . below the soil . . . " is on view at the ICA Watershed in East Boston from May 26, 2022 to September 5, 2022 as part of "Revival: Materials and Monumental Forms."