[Oakland, California]

Jenny Odell

Rose Garden Radio

A radio station by Jenny Odell capturing the sonic soundscape of a public park, specifically a rose garden, in all its simplicity. There are children laughing, aeroplanes flying overhead, musical instruments playing, even toilets flushing. The station loops through recordings that Odell made during seven days in 2024; occasionally the artist herself interjects with a spoken taxonomy of sounds gathered. The choice of the Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland, California is not insignificant. Its importance to Odell is rooted in a celebrated talk the artist gave in 2017 entitled ‘How to Do Nothing’, later expanded into the influential book of the same name, published in 2019.