Tidal Futures:
Friends of Gadsden Creek
July 30th – September 11th, 2021
Opening reception: July 30th , 5:00 – 8:00PM

Redux Contemporary Art Center is excited to present Tidal Futures: Friends of Gadsden Creek. This exhibition aims to highlight the organization’s Outreach Program and uplift one of Redux’s community partners. In the inaugural outreach exhibition, Redux invited the grassroots community-led campaign, Friends of Gadsden Creek, to activate the gallery space to raise awareness about their programming and how the issues they face directly relate to the Charleston community at large. This creative project aims to challenge our viewers preconceived notions of what contemporary art is, guides them to discover and investigate how social justice work is conceptualized and executed, and aims to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about the intersection of creative practice and cultural impact.

Friends of Gadsden Creek states: “As Charleston citizens, how do we respond to our City’s legacy of structural racism and urban development that threatens to leave our most vulnerable citizens underwater and without access to dignified housing? Tidal Futures: Friends of Gadsden Creek invites visitors to engage with a living archive of environmental racism that assembles historical crimes and current-day battles alike. By highlighting an ongoing issue, this hybrid of installation, programming, and mutual aid invites visitors to dive into the consequences of the largest development in Charleston’s history, and take steps towards ending cycles of violence and imagining alternative futures.”

Friends of Gadsden Creek is a grassroots, community-led campaign that since 2018, has opposed the destruction of Gadsden Creek and the continued patterns of injustice inflicted upon the Gadsden Green community. We are a coalition of concerned citizens, business owners, and community leaders who oppose the WestEdge development plan, which as of June 2021, has been approved to move forward. We demand the revitalization of Gadsden Creek and its surrounding wetlands, as a first step in a larger plan of reparations for the social, environmental, and economic harm that has been inflicted upon the Gadsden Green community.

Image credit: Jared Bramblett