Roots, Tides, Leaves

August 9-16, 2025 
EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park, 32 Jennings St, San Francisco, CA 94124  
Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. 
Free and open to the public 
Parking available

The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD) in partnership with the Eco Center at Heron's Head Park are excited to present a new exhibition by photographer and dancer Conni McKenzie. Roots, Tides, Leaves is a solo exhibition that explores Black presence, joy, and curiosity in natural spaces.

In 2024, McKenzie was one of two artists selected to participate in the SFAC's yearlong Artist-in-Residence program at RPD's India Basin Waterfront Park site in the Bayview-Hunter's Point neighborhood. Since 2015, SFAC's Artist in Residence Program has provided artists a chance to step inside City departments, offering a rare opportunity to see how the City works and create art that responds to and reflects that experience.

During her time in residence, McKenzie along with other AIR Afatasi the Artist and Curator-in-Residence Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen spent every Wednesday working out of the park’s historic Shipwright’s Cottage classroom. This became a space for rich conversations about their art, their lives, and their experiences as Black women navigating the world, the city, and even the park itself. Over time, these Wednesdays grew into community days, drawing in curious park visitors, local artists, and neighbors. It was through all of these conversation and spontaneous connections that McKenzie's project was born.  

Roots, Tides, Leaves reflects on the quiet power of adventure, capturing how individuals connect with nature through community, ritual, movement, and rest. Drawing from the artist’s own outdoor practice, it highlights the radical act of exploration in a Black body—especially for Black women, whose access to such spaces has historically been shaped by the intersecting forces of racism and sexism. Through the photographs, adventure is reframed not as conquest or escape, but as an act of presence and inquiry. Through landscapes, self-portraits, and images of community members engaging with nature, the exhibition looks at how the outdoors become a space for healing, introspection, and reconnection. 

McKenzie documents how nature meets people where they are, whether it be through activity or in stillness. Each interaction became a quiet testimony to something older, more grounded, and deeply human. While subtle, Roots Tides, Leaves makes a powerful statement: a Black person is present while capturing every photograph, regardless of whether or not they appear in the photograph. McKenzie asks us to consider not just who appears in the frame, but what it truly means to feel at home in the world. 

about the artist

Conni McKenzie is a San Francisco-based multidisciplinary artist with a primary focus in dance theater, video production, mixed-media, and photography. In 2021, she released her first full concept film “Set Me Free” which was included in the 2021 San Francisco Dance Film Festival and international festivals in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Simultaneously, she co-directed the short film "Lungs of the Earth," featured in the Bay Area Shorts Festival and showcased in the Thatcher Gallery. In 2023, Conni directed "Flow," an immersive performance and exhibition experience that explores the intersection of nature, dance, and digital art. McKenzie is a resident artist at BoxoPROJECTS in Joshua Tree, CA and is part of the 2023-2024 cohort of the Jacob’s Pillow Curriculum in Motion™ Institute. connimckenzie.weebly.com  

Opening Reception & Artist Talk

Saturday, August 9, 2025 | 1 - 4 p.m. (Talk at 1:30 p.m.) 
EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park, 32 Jennings St, San Francisco, CA 94124  
Free and open to the public 
Parking available

project partners

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