We measure everything in time—the hours left in a flight, the minutes remaining for our pasta to boil, the seconds until a workout is over—with eyes glued to the timer. As time dwindles down and our anxious waiting is either gratified or exacerbated by the release of the bells, it’s only a matter of nanoseconds until we grasp the clock yet again, setting another timer for the next task, the next deadline, the next cutoff. We wait, we time, and we move on.

However, there exists a certain group of time watchers who don’t move on. Climate activists from Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti to Greta Thunberg remind the world that time is crucial and of the essence in the race against climate change. And plastered above New York City’s Union Square is a blaring red reminder that time, as we know it, is running thin: in fact, as this post goes live, the Climate Clock reads that there’s four years and 343 days until climate change becomes irreversible.

Breath(e): Toward and Climate and Social Justice—a group exhibition at the Hammer Museum presented with Conservation International, a global nonprofit dedicated to sustainability—is one such diligent observer of time and the elements. Showcasing artists using environmental art practices to address the climate crisis and anthropogenic disasters, Breath(e) taps into the intertwined relationship between equity and social justice. As a participating exhibition in the Getty Museum’s region-wide PST ART: Art & Science Collide initiative—which will see collaboration between 818 artists and 50 exhibitions in Southern California—Breath(e) displays over 100 artworks by 25 international artists alone.

Curated by artist Glenn Kaino and guest curator Mika Yoshitake, Breath(e) will take over the Hammer Museum like breath itself, blowing life into the fight against climate change and reigniting the cause through art. Featuring commissioned works by artists Mel Chin, Ron Finley, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Garnett Puett, and Lan Tuazon, the multidisciplinary exhibition advocates for a nonhierarchical perspective on climate change that’s influenced by ancestral indigenous knowledge—where natural materials are a rudimentary family, not mere receptacles for human consumption. Commissioned pieces, including full-scale garden installations and bee-degraded sculptures, will be presented alongside uncommissioned works such as Mika Tajima’s New Humans II, a piece that uses machine learning to activate an undulating pool of black magnetic liquid, and LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Flint is Family, a photo series that depicts the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

Even so, there's still time to see the exhibition. Breath(e) will be on view at the Hammer Museum from September 14, 2024 to January 5, 2025.