A citrus grove is currently growing in the eighth-floor galleries of the Whitney Museum, but not because the museum is converting those exhibition spaces into an orchard. The flora is part of a living installation conceived and designed in 1972 by artists Helen Mayer Harrison (1927–2018) and Newton Harrison (1932–2022) as part of their Survival series. The artists, collectively known as “The Harrisons,” were among the pioneers of the environmental art movement in the 1970s, making nature itself the medium that defined their practice. Their works, which move in the space between art and activism, often engage in interdisciplinary collaborations with science, opening up new ways of living and working with nature.

Titled Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard, The installation consists of eighteen living citrus trees rooted in individual planters with their own lighting systems. This is the first standalone museum presentation of the work. “We were excited to think about what it would mean to bring one of the Harrisons’ survival pieces to the galleries today, because the questions their work raised more than fifty years ago are even more pressing today,” Whitney curators Kim Conaty and Roxanne Smith told the Observer.

Installing something so everyday and natural, yet so vital to survival, in a museum encourages careful reflection on the organic processes that enable us to eat. Portable Orchardthe curators explained, “invites viewers to think about where their food comes from and what the future might look like if crops could no longer be grown outdoors due to human-caused environmental damage.”

The idea for the work was born at a time when the first environmental movements were just starting to emerge. The idea for the work is based on the artists’ belief that museums could still serve as a platform for inspiring change, starting from a place of forced reflection. At one of the first presentations of the work, Helen Harrison said: “Sooner or later we will have to learn how to grow our own food and take care of ourselves. We have started to think about what that means.”

Creating art with nature and then exhibiting it requires a continuous process of care. “We took that responsibility seriously when we placed these eighteen trees in our galleries. We started with how we sourced materials, considered their life cycles, and created maintenance plans to ensure we could responsibly care for the orchard,” Conaty and Smith said. “Equally important to us was creating a beautiful, contemplative space where visitors could enjoy their stay here and traverse the grove with surprise and delight.”

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Presenting these plants in a museum context elevates them to the status of works of art and brings a new level of attention to people who pause to reflect and question the meaning and essence of the trees. They are removed from their usual context and placed in an institutional setting where they can be fleeting monuments to the life cycles that are constantly unfolding around us and are essential to our collective survival. According to the curators, “visitors often perceive them slowly and thoughtfully, noticing the differences between varieties, paying attention to fruiting cycles, and literally stopping to smell the blossoms.”

Since its unveiling in late June, the installation has served as a catalyst for educational workshops and discussions, including family programs, community engagement and conversations on climate action. Ultimately, this eco-installation offers a meaningful way to reflect and then rethink not only the presence but also the essence of the plants that surround us and are beautiful and important companions that contribute to our existence and encourage us to rethink the sustainability of our decisions.

Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York until January 1, 2025.