On Saturday, Oct. 18, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University held their day-long celebration of its 20th anniversary and the opening of the newly renovated Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Sculpture Garden.
The day began with a tour led by Dr. Xuxa Rodríguez, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher curator of contemporary art, of the expansive and encompassing “Everything Now All at Once,” an exhibit of pieces from the Nasher’s collection of modern art. Pieces include a sound suit sequenced and enlivened by Nick Cave, a punching bag with the inscription “I Put A Spell On You” — a reference to the song by Jay Hawkins — by Jeffrey Gibson and a world-turning painting of an abstract face by Genesis Traimane.
That final piece “Saint with Bethel Vision,” by Traimane was indecipherably transcendent. While many pieces in “Everything Now All at Once” felt empowering, even in the face of personal or systemic hardship, Traimane’s piece dove headfirst into suffering. Most of the exhibit was forward-gazing with an acknowledgement that we may amount to more, but it’s up to us to achieve. Traimaine’s painting screams that pain is all we can know and whispers that we still understand that it isn’t all that exists…