“To quote <environmental historian William> Cronon, who shaped my early understanding of Chicago’s landscape: if we only tell a human-centered story of our city, ‘we miss the extent to which the city’s inhabitants continue to rely as much on the nonhuman world as they do on each other…we also wall ourselves off from the broader ecosystems which contain our urban homes.’” – Mrittika Ghosh, Sixty Inches from Center
Sixty Inches from Center’s Mrittika Ghosh guides audiences through her experience visiting 6018|North’s exhibition, Myth of the Organic City, which presents a historical and contemporary overview of Chicago’s design and land use, from its Indigenous roots through 20th century infrastructure projects to present-day developments. Touring the three-story dilapidated mansion in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood, Ghosh walks through each section of the exhibition (divided by floor), illustrating the feeling of the space being recalled to the wild. Her insights regarding specific installations, discussions of materials used to convey wilderness versus infrastructure, and her descriptions of media that tell the history of Chicago’s industrialization all contribute to an understanding of how the city has and continues to relish the need for balance between modernization and ecological preservation.
Myth of the Organic City is on view at 6018|North through February 23, 2025.
Mrittika Ghosh
Mrittika Ghosh (she/her) is a Bengali-American reader, journalist, and communications strategist currently based in Chicago. She holds a BA from Mount Holyoke College and an MA from the University of Chicago, where her focus was on migration and queerness in Francophone and South Asian contexts. She is a member of the Muña Art Writing Residency’s 2024 cohort, and has also been a bookseller, educator, and translator.
