Gal Nissim’s Invasive Thoughts (Mothers and Monsters) is a multi-media solo exhibition exploring invasive species control methods that target female bodies. Presented by The Neighborhood and A.I.R. Gallery, Invasive Thoughts consists of video, sculpture, and a window installation, weaving together interviews with biologists, reptile hobbyists, and animal welfare scientists to raise urgent questions about which lives we protect, which we eliminate, and whose knowledge we value.

Opening Reception

November 14 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Gallery Hours

November 14-December 13

Wednesday-Sunday | 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM

This exhibition premieres Chapter 1 of Nissim’s three-channel video, which sits at the center of the gallery and features original music by cellist and producer Topu Lyo. This ongoing, multiyear project addresses how care justifies acts of violence. Nissim made this work while pregnant, nursing, and weaning.

Invasive Thoughts began during Nissim’s 2023 and 2025 AIRIE residency in the Everglades. Nissim adopts the perspective of motherhood to explore the moral, scientific, and spiritual complexities of the Burmese python in the Florida Everglades. This exhibition also debuts Destruction and Creation, a site specific window installation that extends the exhibition's themes of death, reproduction, care, and violence into the gallery exterior.

The exhibition returns to the primordial serpent in the Garden of Eden. In the book of Genesis, the serpent is cursed for tempting Eve, whose punishment is to give birth in pain. Nissim asks where the instinct to kill the serpent comes from, and whether these ancient, yet persistent Jewish biblical texts are still at work in a Florida swamp. For viewers who have never read Genesis, the python is a way in. For viewers who grew up with these stories, the Everglades reframes texts they thought they already knew.

Curatorial support by Vardit Gross.

This exhibition was made with additional support by the NYU Animal Studies Program, with artwork development supported by Artis.

Image: Still from Gal Nissim, Invasive Thoughts, 2026. Three-channel video