Queens Botanical Garden (QBG) is pleased to announce Twin Urns, the first major public art installation of New York-based sculptor Chloe Seibert (b. 1989, Astoria), on view from March 29 through September 21, 2026. Installed along the Garden’s main footpath, Twin Urns invites visitors to inscribe their desires, wishes, fears, and secrets onto slips of paper made from plant waste, which are then burned and returned to the earth as fertilizer, their words becoming nourishment for new growth.

At the heart of the installation are two large-scale ceramic urns, each serving a distinct purpose: Visitors may place a slip of paper into the Manifestor or the Incinerator—the choice itself a small, private ritual. The paper slips are made from garden waste, created during free monthly papermaking workshops held at QBG throughout the spring and summer. Coinciding with the autumnal equinox, all collected papers will be burned in a communal closing ceremony and incorporated into the Garden’s composting program—completing a cycle that links human expression, the natural world, and renewal.

The collaboration between Seibert and Hantzopoulos grew from their connection as neighbors and community organizers. Born in Astoria, Seibert is a longtime contributor and participant in the Astoria Food Pantry mutual aid project, which since 2020 has offered groceries, meals, clothing, language classes, and many more resources to hundreds of people every week free of charge. Since 2019, she has co-run Giovanni’s Family Style, a supper club held in historic social halls throughout Queens that brings together New York’s arts and culture community through casual, affordable Italian American-inspired dinners. Hantzopoulos, who has been an Astoria resident since 1999, co-founded Frontline Foods Queens in March 2020, which has provided over 60,000 meals from local restaurants to frontline hospital workers, food pantries, and NYCHA residents across the borough. It is out of this shared history—of feeding neighbors, building networks, and tending to community—that Twin Urns was born.

 

Left: Chloe Seibert, Incinerator, 2026. Glazed stoneware. Right: Portrait of Chloe Seibert by Emma Levesque.