Dreams to get through the night
Abby Nowakowski and Rania Haider
Hamilton Artist Inc.
20 February–18 April 2026
You’re laying in bed, covers drawn over your face with the glow of your phone hurting your eyes as you watch one last video, hear one more shortform thinkpiece about the state of the world. Shut off your phone, close your eyes, pull one foot out of the blanket to keep cool. Push all of it out of your head – think about the fantasies you hold close to your heart, your curated imaginings that carry you until you sleep, until consciousness rests and real dreams can take over. What tender hopes and wishes for the future carry you to sleep? Uncertainty that mars your footsteps as you move through a hard world. No game plan, no safety net. But that is for tomorrow. Right now your bed is soft, and your dreams are sweet. What do you dream about?
Counting Rabbits, recycled paper pulp and marigold seeds, 2026
Looking at seed dispersal as a way to better understand adaptability, resilience, and friendship; Counting Rabbits mimics the vital work many critters like rabbits play in their ecosystems.
Plants rely on animals to carry their seeds away from the parent plant, which allows them to germinate and grow. This puts less pressure on local resources, creates new generations of plants, and builds biodiversity.
These are valuable ecological lessons for us all to learn. For us, seed dispersal might take the form of resource sharing within communities, volunteering our time and energy to organizations we care about, and reminding ourselves that although real change does take time, it is still worth spreading those seeds.
Made of paper pulp infused with gathered local seeds from last year’s harvest, this life-sized bunny mobile is designed to hang as a physical lullaby in the gallery space, then be planted once the spring comes. Visitors are invited to take on the role of seed dispersers, and carry away a piece of seed paper to plant into the soil — a small act of guerrilla gardening.
I like to imagine that the rabbits are slowly dancing to the rhythm of Rania’s paintings, filled with Urdu script that could almost be singing
Photo credit: Sonali Menezes