Hypnotic Art Installation Celebrates Black Movement and Liberation
Story by:
Published Date
Article Content
This summer, Mandeville Art Gallery at UC San Diego presents a new commission exploring liberated Black realities by artist LaJuné McMillian. “The Portal’s Keeper” was created specifically for the gallery’s permanent exterior three-sided LED screen that transforms the building’s façade into a sleek canvas. The installation is co-sponsored by the university’s Black Studies Project and is on view daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Sept. 26.
McMillian is a new media artist and creative technologist whose art integrates performance, extended reality and physical computing. Many of their projects are in response to the cultural appropriation of Black movement and dance in the motion capture industry. McMillian promotes creative practices that encourage vulnerability, honor Black people’s stories and lives and makes space for community growth.
“'The Portal’s Keeper’ is a reminder that movement not only represents our individual experiences, but it also represents our collective memory, transcending space, time and oppressive social structures,” said McMillian. “It allows us to connect to each other, our ancestors, our deepest selves, and gives us space to communicate to our future. Movement is a technology, holding the stories of our existence globally.”
The new installation is just one example of the many exhibitions, concerts, theatrical performances and creative experimentation that happens across UC San Diego. “Through ArtsConnect, the new Chancellor’s Arts Initiative, we are activating the entire university as a place to become immersed in culture and creativity,” said Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities Cristina Della Coletta. “The program, co-led by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life, pairs the innovation of the academic arts with lively events that engage diverse audiences on and off campus.”
Opening portals
Students at UC San Diego were recently invited to a movement and meditation workshop with McMillian to learn about issues of cultural representation and exploitation in digital tools and software. They were also exposed to techniques in motion capture, rigging and 3D environments.
In addition to learning, students also had the chance to dance. Each participant was captured through an avatar created with extended reality and physical computing technology. Their digital movements were used to develop personal movement libraries that were integrated into “The Portal’s Keeper” project at the gallery.
The creative process also included reflection and journaling—a method that informs much of McMillian’s work. For them, liberation starts with “looking at yourself fully in the mirror, all of your wounds and trauma; I bring all of that into the forefront in my art,” said McMillian.
Their meditations are meant to lead to moments of discovery (the opening of new portals) and self-love. In a meditation for “The Portal’s Keeper,” McMillian writes, “What must be broken to reveal what is sacred? What must be destroyed to reveal what is real? May we protect what is sacred to us. May we honor ourselves and others.”
McMillian’s hypnotic performances and projections have been exhibited across the United States. Most recently “The Portal’s Keeper—A Meditation” was projected onto the Daniels & Fisher Tower in downtown Denver as part of Night Lights Denver 2024, and “Movement Portraits” was presented for the month of June in 2022 by Times Square Arts as part of the Midnight Moments series. Their research on Blackness, movement and technology has been supported by residencies at Eyebeam, Pioneer Works, and Barnard College. Their first solo museum exhibition “The Portal’s Keeper: Origins” opens at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, TN in Fall 2024.
“The Portal’s Keeper” installation is curated by Ceci Moss, director and chief curator of the Mandeville Art Gallery. Administered in the School of Arts and Humanities, the gallery is an institute for transformative contemporary art, with a five-decade history of presenting innovative exhibitions by pioneering artists in the context of a major research university. The space, newly reopened in March 2023 after a period of extensive renovations, serves both the university and local community.
“What must be broken to reveal what is sacred? What must be destroyed to reveal what is real? May we protect what is sacred to us. May we honor ourselves and others.”
You May Also Like
Stay in the Know
Keep up with all the latest from UC San Diego. Subscribe to the newsletter today.
