How We Hold the Weather, 2026

Two channel film, musical composition for flute, bass flute, and piano, sheet music on paper

Duration: 5:19 and 5:20

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How We Hold the Weather looks to the healthiest forest in Atlanta for lessons on how life persists through environmental change. Scenes of intimate attention unfold across a musical composition that translates the forest's tree-ring data into sound. The bass flute, beginning in 4/4 and performed by the artist’s mother, tracks the steady, seasonal rhythm of Atlanta’s oldest living oak tree, while the flute, played by the artist, enters as the younger tree. The two briefly harmonize before the bass flute slips out of meter into atemporal phrasing, mirroring how the elder tree has lost track of its seasonal rhythms following a severe drought in 1984.  

 

The two channels, offset by one second, gradually fall out of sync over the course of the exhibition, mirroring the impact of climate collapse on ecosystem phenology. The work gestures toward the possibility of re-synchronization and recovery from temporal instability, suggesting hope lies in younger generations' ability to learn lessons for becoming fit to place.​​

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DIRECTION Heather Bird Harris // VIDEOGRAPHY Bryan Tarnowski // MUSIC COMPOSITION Bridget Gilchrist and Heather Bird Harris // PIANO & BASS FLUTE Bridget Gilchrist // FLUTE Heather Bird Harris // AUDIO ENGINEERING Tom Gilchrist // STARRING Jade Harris (8) and Hazel Harris (6) ​​​​​​