SPECULATIVE ARCHITECTURE
OF THE OVERFLOW

PREMIERING FALL 2026

— an exhibition, performance, and action —

EXHIBITION

Speculative Architecture of the Overflow weaves together stories, activism, and community visioning through the collective work of communities around the globe in a powerful tribute to better possible futures. At its heart are 84 hand-stitched quilts—spanning 370 square meters—designed by Fond du Lac Ojibwe textile artist Maggie Thompson. Featuring hand-written messages and visions of their community co-creators in a testament to shared hopes, resistance, and resilience, capturing moments of historic actions including water protection at Standing Rock, along with personal records of histories, migrations, and dreams.

The quilts provide living testament as they continue their journey, offering space to gather, reflect, learn and share. They began during the creation of Emily Johnson / Catalyst’s Then a Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars (2014–2019) and continue to transform as part of monthly fire gatherings, performances, and otherworldly beings. This exhibition invites visitors not just to witness but to engage—tracing the stitches of communal labor, the imprints of hands that sewed across continents, and the enduring power of sharing story. They are an archive, activated. They invite us to  reflection on interconnected futures. And they call to step into the future, to commit ourselves to conjuring these better possible futures.

OVERFLOW RADIO

Overflow Radio emerges from Emily’s practice of creating large-scale social choreographies and features contributions from Indigenous writers and storytellers from around the globe. This monumental tribute to Indigenous thrivance will gather in-person and remote audiences for an experience that transcends colonial borders, languages and time—while fostering shared commitment to conjuring better possible futures.

16 Indigenous artists, writers and storytellers will broadcast into the performance space from locations across the globe, offering readings, poetry, essay, skill shares, sound experiences, star stories, ghost stories, and more. In-person audiences gather among quilt installation and their hand-written messages for the future. These welcoming quilts offer themselves and their visions as a space for folks to sit, lay down, rest, reflect, converse, play, dream, and speculate, as a site to come together to practice deep, cellular, attentive witnessing and listening. 

Across the duration of 24 non-consecutive hours, Emily crafts a performance that is woven through the story-cycle. Broadcasts are shared in the language of the author’s choosing, with English translation offered only at their discretion. The English texts will also be offered via projected text and ASL. Food and feasting play a key part in caring for and nourishing the in-person audience, and I draw on my experience in collaborating with food sovereignty / food justice workers to provide local meals in collaboration with Indigenous chefs.

Simultaneously, remote audiences and partners are offered a toolkit, to guide a constellation of gatherings at theaters, public spaces or private homes, allowing groups to co-create localized versions of these experiences—while listening to the broadcast story shares.

1000 TREES

As with all of Catalyst’s projects, Speculative Architecture of the Overflow encompasses artistic, environmental, relational, formal and institutional concerns, as we foster a world where artistic practice and activism are not separate from one another. In each location, we will forge local partnerships to create an enduring legacy—the planting and nurturing of 1000 trees to maturity—while fostering a network of 1,000 tree caretakers in a large-scale community-driven action of care for our future. These trees, some food- or fruit-bearing, will provide oxygen, shade, nourishment and habitat for more-than-human kin, restoring landscapes both urban and rural into thriving, interconnected ecosystems. Community caretakers—volunteer or compensated—tend to an individual tree throughout its life, showering it with visits, waterings, prunings, and even perhaps a name, as they foster a new relationship with these beings that sustain us all.

Beyond ecological impact, the project creates a shared story of place and time. Through a variety of interactive mapping and archiving methods, ranging from a zine, map, app, Instagram feeds, or more, each tree’s location, species, and fruiting cycles are documented, inviting people to forage responsibly and to experience the pleasure of these abundances. Recipes—co-created with Indigenous, Black, and POC farmers, beekeepers, and herbalists—will emerge seasonally, offering knowledge and sustenance rooted in the land. 

Alongside this, oral histories and wisdom from Indigenous and local knowledge keepers will be woven into the project, grounding us in both what was and what is needed for a regenerative future. These stories—perhaps wetlands once shaped by beavers, for example, or other disrupted ecologies—reshape our relationships to place, fostering care and alternative perspectives. Shared across platforms, these stories plant seeds that create an ever-growing web of connection between land, people, and the more-than-human world.

Credits

EMILY JOHNSON
Artistic Director

MAGGIE THOMPSON
Quilt Design

IV CASTELLANOS
Interkinnector & Production Manager

KORINA EMMERICH
Exhibitions Steward and Materials Caretaker

GEORGE LUGG
Producorial & Management Support

SUPPORT

Speculative Architecture of the Overflow is a National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund Project commissioned by Roy and Edna Disney / CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and co-commissioned DiverseWorks, MASS MoCA and University of Minnesota Dance Program, more information at www.npnweb.org.

Speculative Architecture of the Overflow is developed through creative residencies provided by University of Minnesota’s Imagine Fund with support from the McKnight Foundation, and Danspace Project with support from the New York State DanceForce, a partnership program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

Speculative Architecture of the Overflow is created with generous support from First Peoples Fund, Howard Gilman Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, and the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and The Mellon Foundation.

Header photo by Two Hawks Young

Additional Photos by Toby Tenenbaum