Saturday, August 10, 2024 The Frist Art Museum in Nashville is set to unveil “LaJuné McMillian: The Portal’s Keeper—Origins,” a mesmerizing exhibition showcasing the innovative work of New York-based artist LaJuné McMillian. This exhibition, running from September 27, 2024, to January 5, 2025, in the Gordon Contemporary Artists Gallery, promises to captivate visitors with its multimedia projections, sculptural installations, and holographic self-portraits. LaJuné McMillian pushes the boundaries of art and technology, using 3D-modeling, motion-capture techniques, and multisensory elements to create immersive environments that honor Black bodily movement as a powerful expression of freedom.
Through motion-capture software, McMillian animates avatars of Black dancers, performers, and even the artist themself, infusing them with vibrant colors and dynamic energy. These avatars navigate through fantastical landscapes, responding to a rich blend of poetry, incantations, and diverse soundscapes. This exhibition offers a profound exploration of identity, movement, and the limitless potential of digital art, making it a must-see event in Nashville.
“Throughout the works in this exhibition, the body—sinuous and vital, uninhibited and unencumbered—moves from a place of pain into one of new possibility,” writes Frist Art Museum chief curator Mark Scala. “In suggesting that technology can help Black people imagine a more empowered future for themselves, McMillian’s marvelous works explode the legacy of centuries in which the Black body was bound, constrained, abused, and exploited.” LaJuné McMillian’s artistic journey, deeply rooted in kinetic movement, finds its origins in a lifelong passion for figure skating.
As the director of Figure Skating in Harlem, McMillian uniquely blended skating lessons with a STEAM curriculum tailored for young Black girls, fostering both physical and intellectual growth. In 2018, McMillian launched the Black Movement Library, an innovative online archive dedicated to preserving and celebrating the motion of Black performers. This extensive database of motion capture and video recordings serves as what McMillian describes as “an archive of Black existence,” connecting past, present, and future generations through the ephemeral yet profound language of bodily movement.
At the heart of McMillian’s upcoming exhibition, LaJuné McMillian: The Portal’s Keeper—Origins , is the centerpiece installation, Spirit and Child . This extended-reality piece features three-channel projections of avatars born from motion-captured performances, dancing amidst psychedelic, abstract shapes that ebb and flow in hypnotic patterns. A physical arch, forming the exhibition’s namesake portal, stands at the installation’s center, where an abstract figure appears to be running through a mystical realm.
The immersive experience is further enriched by a complex orchestration of sounds and spoken word. According to Scala, who provides insights into the work, Spirit and Child is “a prayer of pain and recovery that explores the limits of the body and the expansiveness of the soul.” The avatars’ voices, all McMillian’s own, capture the emotional journey of a confused and distraught child, grappling with the realities of life, juxtaposed against the wisdom of a grown self who has survived and now offers perspective and comfort.
The exhibition also delves into themes of identity and self-perception with Mother and Child , a poignant sculptural self-portrait by McMillian. This work features a black cast of the artist’s face, surrounded by yaki, a type of artificial yak hair that holds significant meaning for McMillian. The material is linked to Tibetan Buddhism, where the yak’s body parts are believed to have transformed into celestial and natural elements.
Yaki also carries cultural resonance within the Black community, frequently used in hair extensions and wigs by Black women. As Scala notes, this adds “an additional layer of cultural significance.” Projected onto the sculpture’s hair is a film of McMillian’s mother styling their hair as a child.
This imagery, contrasting with the yaki’s spiritual symbolism, evokes a more personal and somber reflection. McMillian recalls, “Growing up, I associated my relationship with my hair to pain and sacrifice. Sitting long hours in uncomfortable positions, I was told and reminded that beauty was pain, and that my ability to sit in stillness even when suffering would be rewarded.
” This narrative prompts McMillian to question how pain is taught and internalized by young Black children, and how it is often linked to obedience. The exhibition concludes with a series of holographic self-portraits, where three-dimensional morphing patterns and motion-captured figures perpetually loop in cycles of formation and reformation. These works suggest the fluidity and adaptability of identity, highlighting how figures can retain their humanity even within the nonphysical realms of technology, as Scala observes.
As an engaging and interactive element, the gallery offers Prayer Consciousness , where visitors are invited to engage with a computer-based series of prompts, allowing them to write and share their own prayers, further connecting with the themes of the exhibition..
