The Brooklyn Rail

Earlier this summer, New York-based sculptor and activist Jordan Weber stood before a small crowd on a corner lot in East Canfield Village, just five miles outside downtown Detroit. Beside him sat Kim Theus, co-founder of Canfield Consortium, a local nonprofit committed to community development that Weber worked alongside to complete his latest large-scale permanent installation, New Forest, Ancient Thrones (2024), which towered behind him. Moments before, a procession of West African drummers had walked through the crowd playing djembe drums. Later, the Detroit Tree Equity Partnership would hold a tree ceremony and students from the Barack Obama Leadership Academy would read poetry. As far as opening celebrations are concerned, this one felt particularly intimate.

Commissioned by Sidewalk Detroit, Weber’s glittering sculpture combines elements from the crowns worn by two African queens: Ranavalona III of nineteenth-century Madagascar and Queen Idia of sixteenth century Benin. In its center, a webbed, forward-pointing peak recalls the coral-beaded crown of the Beninese iyoba—or mother of the oba (king). As the mother of Esigie, who reigned as oba of the Edo people from 1504 to 1550, Idia played a pivotal role in the wars that preceded her son’s ascension to power. Sprouting from the latticed metalwork at the center of the arch, Weber added silhouettes of the tropical leaves that replaced the cross on Ranavalona III’s crown, echoing the Malagsy queen’s staunch resistance against France’s colonial ambitions in Africa.

By referencing these two historical figures, Weber imbues his work with important symbolic significance that honors the resilience of Black communities in the past and emphasizes the importance of resistance against both racism and environmental injustice in the future. Though the sculpture itself is constructed rather minimally, more the outline of a crown than a detailed reproduction of one, in light of Weber’s grander vision for the land on which it stands, its minimalism makes sense: New Forest, Ancient Thrones is to be the first of several phases of a larger, multi-modal project, called Detroit Remediation Forest, which is aimed at reimagining the park as a dedicated space for community gathering and environmental reclamation.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, East Canfield Village has one of the highest rates of asthma hospitalization of children in all of Michigan. Its proximity to the nearby Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant is notable. In March 2024, Stellantis agreed to pay a $84,420 fine for air quality violations; however, the air quality in the area remains dangerously toxic. With this in mind, Weber added air quality monitors to the surface of New Forest, Ancient Thrones, designed to keep residents informed about the air quality. Depending on the wind direction, the levels of volatile organic compounds in the air can vary widely. Lights installed by Weber change color in response, providing residents with the information needed to take substantive steps toward reversing the destabilizing effects of pollution in their neighborhood. Just behind New Forest, Ancient Thrones, Weber also planted pine and cypress trees, which filter contaminants out of the air. In future phases of the project, he plans to erect a raised walkway for “forest bathing,” which is proven to have significant physical and mental health benefits, and to expand the forest onto a nearby plot, creating what he calls a “green wall” to protect East Canfield residents from encroaching air pollutants.

Following Weber’s recent commission for the Counterpublic 2023 triennial in St. Louis, Detroit Remediation Forest represents an expansion of Weber’s work at the cross-section of social justice, environmental racism, and land regeneration. Both in his use of art to point toward a specific environmental issue and his engagement with actionable, science-based solutions to address that issue, Weber participates in a broader movement of “regenerative art,” which seeks to revitalize links between communities and the ecosystems they inhabit. The scope of regenerative art is broad, including artists like Rhea Thomas, who recently received a 2024 Arts Foundation Futures Award for Regenerative Design for her biomaterial research transforming prawn waste from the seafood industry into an alternative to single-use food packaging, as well as Brooklyn-based artist Chitra Ganesh, who recently unveiled a large-scale public video installation at New York’s Penn Station designed to reconnect commuters with what the Observer described as “elements that transcend humanity’s limitations, encouraging a regeneration of perspective and a reset of both the mental and the physical.”

As Weber’s priority with Detroit Remediation Forest is to educate, equip, and empower the residents of East Canfield Village to build more inclusive and equitable public spaces, his contribution to regenerative art is unique in his emphasis on collaboration with nonprofit partners and community members themselves. While regenerative artists elsewhere focus on the materials and methods of regenerative practices, Weber’s focus is principally on community engagement. The result is poignant. If there was a sliding scale between art and activism, Weber’s work might lean toward the latter. However, his use of art to help community members understand the importance of their participation in activist work should not be overlooked. In a time when the art world is routinely criticized for being disengaged with the real world, Weber’s attention to the needs of specific neighborhoods and communities suffering the effects of industrial pollution offers a template for a more involved kind of art-making.