Nyugen E. Smith’s Bundle House (Te’nashcity) was a large-scale sculpture and live performance at Fisk University, part of EADJ’s Fall 2022 academic program calendar. The program of events for the semester was centered around the theme “Artistic Activism and the Power of Collective Resistance” authored between curator Selene Wendt and EADJ Founder, María Magdalena Campos-Pons. The program presented a set of vibrant discussions and artist activations that examined the consequences of social and historical inequities on the southern imaginary, as seen in art from Africa, Latin America, South Europe, South Asia, and the American South.
About the Artists:
Nyugen E. Smith is an artist living and working in Jersey City, NJ. His practice revolves around the construction of narrative through the prism of Black cultural identity. The manifold ramifications of European colonialism across the African Diaspora serve as the foundation upon which his practice is constructed. Smith adopts a rhizomatic methodology, characterized by its non-linear and interconnected approach, as a means of conceptualizing and realizing creative expression.
Guided by the metaphorical roots of this colonial legacy, Nyugen is interested in the dynamic interplay between various thematic nodes, including architecture, language, performance, ritual, trauma, DNA memory, climate change, and migration. These thematic nodes are woven into the fabric of his practice. The inherent poetry of their relational dynamics guides the creation of the work.
Central to his practice is an emphasis on the utilization of pre-existing materials, the body, and play, within the art-making process.
Smith holds a BA, Fine Art from Seton Hall University and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been presented at the Museum of Latin American Art, Peréz Art Museum, Museum of Cultural History, Norway, Frist Art Museum, Blanton Museum, Newark Museum, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. Nyugen is the recipient of the Creative Capital Award, Leonore Annenberg Performing and Visual Arts Fund, Franklin Furnace Fund, Dr. Doris Derby Award, New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant, and Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant.
“I proposed, Bundle House (Te’nashcity) a new large-scale sculpture and live performance. This migrating found object sculpture, created in Nashville, draws upon Nashville’s history related to The Great Migration, and its vulnerability to climate disaster as the flood of 2010 demonstrated.” – Nyugen E. Smith
“Smith makes alternate worlds that are inspired by the creativity and resilience of the Black diaspora. His Bundle House series comes from more than ten years of exploring themes of uncertainty and forced migration. With roots in Trinidad and Haiti, Smith focuses on the Caribbean. He sees it as “ground zero” for climate disasters and recognizes the area’s fragility. In his sculptures and works on paper, Smith uses materials like rubber, plastic, and wood, which remind him of makeshift shelters. He is especially interested in collage because the technique echoes how Africa and other regions were cut up and rearranged under colonial rule.”
Lisa Tung, MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), Artistic and Executive Director
The Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice invited Nyugen E. Smith to create a large new sculpture and performance that was on view at Fisk University on October 19, 2022. The work performed in collaboration with Nashville’s Krystin Young served as part of EADJ’s Fall 2022 academic program calendar. The program of events for the semester was centered around the theme “Artistic Activism and the Power of Collective Resistance” authored between curator Selene Wendt and EADJ Founder, María Magdalena Campos-Pons.
Smith was introduced to the Liberated Grounds (a local-Nashville artist collective) who assisted him with creating the new work and also his costume for the live performance outside Fisk University’s Carl Van Grethen Galleries. Big Fella and Walter Lewis of Fella Vision (a local-Nashville recording studio) shared studio space with the EADJ team and Smith to help with the production of the new sculpture.
A special thanks goes to Jamaal Sheats, Director of Fisk University’s Galleries and his team for co-presenting the program with the EADJ team. Another special thanks to Josh Duensing for documenting the process of creating Smith’s sculpture as well as the live performance.
Nyugen E. Smith. Bundle House (Te’nashcity). Mixed media sculpture and performance accompanied by Krystin Young for The Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice Fall 2022 program of events, titled “ Artistic Activism and the Power of Collective Resistance”. Carl Van Vechten Gallery courtyard, Fisk University, Nashville, 2022. Video by: Josh Duensing.