This weekend, Descanso Gardens will unveil a meticulously curated artwork exhibition titled “Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World.” Co-curated by Edith de Guzman, cooperative extension local weather researcher on the UCLA Luskin Middle for Innovation, and artist Jolly de Guzman — a husband-and-wife duo — the exhibition highlights all-women artists who provoke guests to ponder the urgent concern of shade fairness, the unequal entry to cooling shade throughout city neighborhoods, and what a tree and shade stuffed future can seem like for L.A.
The targets of the exhibition are clear from the beginning, starting with its title, “Roots of Cool,” which creatively integrates the Fahrenheit image within the phrase “of,” a tree within the letter “t” and the phrase “cool” as a shadow solid from the phrase “roots.”
The exhibit begins within the backyard’s pathways, strewn with artworks, which lead guests to the gallery rooms housed within the park’s Sturt Haaga Gallery and historic Boddy Home.
A customer’s proposal for a brand new sort of bus cease that gives extra shade, a part of the brand new exhibition “Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World” at Descanso Gardens on July 9, 2025.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
The primary piece of artwork on the trail, positioned on the gardens entrance, is Leslie Okay. Grey’s “Bus Stop of the Past,” an out of doors set up that exhibits the silhouette of a lady standing on an L.A. road, presumably ready for a bus, with no shade construction close by, meant to signify the climate-related challenges girls bus riders confronted whereas commuting previously.
It’s the primary of a three-part set up — the opposite two components present up later within the exhibition — that invitations guests “to think temporally about where we’ve been and where we’re going,” Grey mentioned. In accordance with the artist, it’s meant to focus on historic city planning selections which have left sure communities disproportionately susceptible to warmth, significantly girls of coloration, who’re outstanding riders of L.A. public transportation, as indicated by statistics displayed on the bus indicators accompanying the works.
One other standout of the out of doors a part of the exhibition is Chantée Benefield’s “Cool Canopy,” which entails dozens of multicolored umbrellas suspended over guests’ heads. The piece is especially resonant provided that it’s really a recreation that Benefield made after the unique was misplaced, alongside along with her household residence, within the Eaton Fireplace.
Artist Chantée Benefield’s set up “Cool Canopy” at Descanso Gardens on July 9, 2025.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
“What if the trees in neighborhoods were like graffiti, just ubiquitous everywhere?” Benefield requested. Her set up is each a colourful homage to misplaced greenery and a strong assertion on city shade disparities, prompting guests to ponder what they’d do with out the shade being solid by these “trees” as they stroll by the sunny patch the place the work is positioned.
The subsequent cease on the pathway is the second piece in Grey’s three-part set up: “Bus Stop of the Present.” It’s a model of the primary, however with the addition of a shade construction for the girl bus rider. Nevertheless, it exhibits clearly that the added construction remains to be insufficient, reflecting most of the realities girls bus commuters face immediately. The bus signal right here incorporates scientific details that make the case for the vital want for systemic city planning modifications. Grey emphasised that these details have been rigorously chosen from peer-reviewed analysis and “scientifically vetted.”
Coming into the Sturt Haaga Gallery, issues change. Every room is supposed to elicit a selected expertise round city planning and vegetation, and so every has its personal visible and auditory scheme.
Kim Abeles’ piece “Looking for Paradise (Downtown Los Angeles).”
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
It begins with a dreary, urban past: shown against gray walls, works by Kim Abeles and Diana Kohne address historical inequities. Abeles’ installation “Looking for Paradise” visualizes the uneven distribution of trees in Downtown Los Angeles, while Kohne’s painted urban landscapes vividly depict the shade inadequacies she witnessed firsthand through her bus commutes as an L.A. resident, emphasizing how Los Angeles and other cities were built for “efficiency” rather than human comfort. The works are paired with compelling research, including the history of redlining and crucial heat-shade statistics, which visitors can interact with and see how their own communities are affected by these factors.
The next room is the present, with bright yellow walls representing the increasing urban heat of a changing climate. The artworks attempt to do the same. For example, Lisa Tomczeszyn’s installation, “Every Bench Deserves a Tree,” consists of two benches beside each other, one with no shade and only a street sign reading “Asphalt Blvd” while the other is shaded by a large tree — with leaves that are actually cutout photos of trees throughout the Deaconso gardens.
Finally, the third gallery room attempts to project a cooler, more verdant future with walls colored a serene green hue. It features works that imagine a future where technology and city planning better respond to environmental stressors, including Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke’s “Suspended Garden.” Like Tomczeszyn’s work in the previous room, this piece is also comprised primarily of benches set underneath umbrellas. In this case however, those umbrella canopies are made of repurposed plant materials.
Artist Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke’s piece “Suspended Garden” at Descanso Gardens.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
One key objective of the exhibit is to assist guests hook up with the significance of warmth, shade and concrete bushes. For instance, on the very finish of the exhibit within the Boddy Home, guests can contribute to a real-world information assortment research about how shade shapes their neighborhoods and what shade-heat associated reality they discover most putting, and are additionally invited to attract their imagined shade constructions for girls ready at bus stops.
“[We] just don’t want to do science and just don’t want to do art. [We] want to create a good intersection that actually engages people,” mentioned Jolly de Guzman.
Yarn Bombing Los Angeles’ set up within Boddy Home at Descanso Gardens on July 9, 2025.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Occasions)
“We want to get them through the heartstrings, visually, aesthetically and actively,” added Edith de Guzman. Reflecting on the broader potential for change, she mentioned, “There’s a lot of reasons to despair right now, but if we change our radio frequency a little bit, we can connect to a whole different feeling. We can actually create the city we want, in the neighborhoods that we deserve.”
The exhibition will run from July 12 to Oct. 12, 2025, with a free opening reception on Friday, July 11, from 5 to 7 p.m.
