“Beyond the Bedrock” featured interdisciplinary art and public programming by Yasmeen Abdallah, Melinda Kiefer Santiago & Katrina Slavik at PS122 Gallery in New York, New York, 2025. Through installation, assemblage, textiles, painting, and food, the exhibition considered our role in consumption and decomposition.
Yasmeen Abdallah incorporates sociopolitical aspects and engagement as central points in her interdisciplinary practice drawing on her background in historical and collaborative archaeology.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago digs into soil research, particularly around toxic legacies and perceptions of the Anthropocene, locating her work materially in New York and collecting soil samples from sites such as Governors Island and the playground by her home in Queens.
Using clothing and fabrics gifted from friends, Katrina Slavik cuts, paints, quilts, embroiders, and sews textiles together, visualising connections among family, communities, ecosystems, and industrial systems.
Together, their work speaks to the public rooted in materiality and place.
Photography by Stefan Hagen.
Beyond the Bedrock, Artist Talk, October 2025 (left to right: Yasmeen Abdallah, Katrina Slavik, Melinda Kiefer Santiago)
Installation shot 1.
Installation shot 2.
Installation shot 3.
Installation shot 4.
Installation shot 5.
Installation shot 6.
Installation shot 7.
Installation 8.
Installation shot 9.
Installation images of work by Yasmeen Abdallah.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Porous Boundaries, 2025, acrylic, embroidery, chiffon, soil, wooden dowels, beads, 59 x 36 inches.
Porous boundaries - detail.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Anthropocene Dream, 2024, Archival digital prints, repurposed fabrics, repurposed plastics, chain, glass, embroidery, pre-glacial melt Long Island soil, house plant soil, chicken bones from dinner, 78 x 16 x 2 inches.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Cicada Time, 2025, ceramic, digital prints, soils, dried flowers, hudson river reeds, metal, acrylic, wood, each 10 x 10 x .5 inches.
Katrina Slavik, New Roots Follow the Old Veins, 2023, Acrylic and embroidery on repurposed fabric, 20”h x 12”w.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Governors Island Soil Profile 2080, 2024, Repurposed wooden and glass frame, bronze pins, archival digital prints, branches, 22 x 10 x 2 inches.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Hand Roots, 2025, acrylic, embroidery, soils, stones, branch, wooden beads, repurposed gloves, 42 x 24 x 2 inches.
Yasmeen Abdallah, Matrix, 2025, yarn, 5 ft x 1 ft.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Microscopic, 2025, mirror, soils, seeds, digital prints, acrylic, wood, 12 x 9 x .5 inches.
Yasmeen Abdallah, Ground, 2025, Embroidery and picnic remnants with dirt on fabric with trim, 10 ft x 3 ft.
Yasmeen Abdallah, Earthenbound, 2025, Assorted fabric, synthetic leaves, glitter, rubber band,and thread, dimensions variable.
Yasmeen Abdallah, Midden, 2025, yarn, 2 ft x 1 ft.
Yasmeen Abdallah, Sumac Sumud, 2025, yarn, 2 ft x 1 ft.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, To Trinitite (A Vast MultiColored Cloud Rose into the Sky), 2024, dried roses, horseshoe crab, digital prints of hazy sun, trinitite, and apartment building, soil, stones, glass jars, locket, string, acrylic, wood, 8 x 8 x 2.5 inches.
Katrina Slavik, Backyard Garden Spirit Blessing the Feast, 2023, Acrylic on old pillow case, clothing, and repurposed fabric, 21”h x 22”w.
Backyard Garden Spirit Blessing the Feast - detail.
Katrina Slavik, Backyard in Summer, 2023, Acrylic and embroidery on repurposed fabric, 24”h x 21”w.
Katrina Slavik, A Day in the Life, 2025, Fabric paint and embroidery on repurposed fabric, 33"h x 23"w.
A Day in the Life - detail.
Katrina Slavik, Self Portrait as Sunflower, 2025, Repurposed fabric, found plastic, embroidery, and beading, 50”h x 22”w.
Katrina Slavik, Bricks under the asphalt, 2024, Acrylic, embroidery, and beading on repurposed fabric, 30”h x 12”w.
A Day in the Life - detail.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Earth Aid, ceramic, stones, digital prints, repurposed fabric, acrylic, wood, 5 x 5 x 2 inches.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Horizon Offering, 2025, polaroid prints, stones, seeds, branches, glass jar, acrylic, wood, 10 x 6 x 2 inches.
Yasmeen Abdallah, Horizon, 2025, yarn, 3 ½ ft x 1 ft.
Horizon - detail.
Yasmeen Abdallah, Silt and Loam, 2025, yarn, 4 ft x 4 ft.
Yasmeen Abdallah, Glacial, 2025, Embroidery and picnic remnants with dirt on fabric with trim, 10 ft x 3 ft.
Glacial - detail.
Glacial - detail.
Katrina Slavik, Hidden Cities, 2024, Acrylic on repurposed fabric with repurposed paper, 47”h x 25”w.
Katrina Slavik, The Birth and Death of Aluminum Cans, 2024, Fabric paint on repurposed fabric, 54”h x 52”w.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Geologic Time (Golden Spikes), 2025, Astoria Heights Park soil, preglacial melt soil (Long Island), repurposed globe, Hudson River metro north stones (Bronx), stones from Van Cortlandt park (Bronx), yard stones (Long Island), roots, dried flowers, black walnut seeds, string, digital prints, 15 x 8 x 10 inches.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Dirt Book, 2024, Repurposed book, archival digital prints, acrylic paint, approx. 100,000 year old Long Island soil unaffected by glacial melt, 14 x 8 x 6 inches.
Melinda Kiefer Santiago, Epoch Cycles (Dirt Moon), 2024, NY soils from different epochs, wood, 10 x 10 x .5 inches.
In Katrina Slavik’s workshop, “Post-it Notes of Desire”, participants altered a corkboard cityscape using post-its, push pins, writing, and drawing. Prior to the collaboration, the collage included printed images and text from the internet (as well as reproduced drawings by Melinda Kiefer Santiago!). By putting our voices together, we created our ideal city.