Natura Extracta: Continental Ecologies & Inter-Territorial Affairs by Oscar M. Caballero

Art on Audubon Terrace
155 & 156 Streets on Broadway (3741 Broadway, New York, NY 10032)

On view August 20 – November 16, 2025

This installation traces the entangled histories of extraction, migration, and environmental transformation across the Americas. Evoking the impact of the Pan-American Highway, it reflects on the ways industrial and colonial extractivism have reshaped both ecological systems and human geographies. Conceived as a living cartography of disrupted ecologies, the pavilion brings together flora, urban fauna, seeds, and pollinators to create a micro-ecosystem that doubles as a territorial archive. The ephemeral gardenaims to create a space of reflection and connection.

Born in Nicaragua and currently based in New York, Caballero is an architect, researcher, artist, and curator whose work explores alternative approaches to architecture by questioning established spatial frameworks and proposing new ways of engaging with the built environment.

Now in its third year, Art on Audubon Terrace is produced jointly by the Hispanic Society and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance. Aiming to provide a space for artists living and/or working in Upper Manhattan to exhibit new work, previous exhibitions in the series have featured installations by Marta Chilindrón and Rose Deler.

Stay tuned for more information about programming associated with the exhibition.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Conceived as a living cartography of disrupted ecosystems, Natura Extracta explores how colonial and industrial extractivism have reshaped the natural environment and human geographies. Evoking the outline of the Pan-American Highway, the pavilion gathers diverse flora from across the Americas, along with urban fauna and pollinators, to create a microcosm linking displaced plant species to the forced territorial migration of people. This ephemeral garden serves as a space for reflection, connection and resistance. It reimagines material futures through ritual and ecological memory, inviting public participation and dialogue.

Over a century ago, the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío left traces of his handwriting on the walls of the Hispanic Society, inscribing both his presence and his vision into its foundation. It is with a deep sense of continuity and responsibility that I come to this institution as another Nicaraguan, this time not with verse, but with an installation rooted in ecology, migration, and material memory. Natura Extracta extends Darío’s imprint into the present, transforming a space once shaped by literary modernism into a living archive of environmental and diasporic resilience. I am grateful to the Hispanic Society for opening its doors to this dialogue across time, territory, and cultural legacy.