Nyugen E. Smith: Spirit Carriers

Nyugen E. Smith began making the Spirit Carriers in 2016 as vessels to carry and protect the spirits of unarmed people of color killed by the police, until, as the artist says, “the spirits can go where they need to go.” 

Suspended from the ceiling, the sculptures seem to float in the space, like eccentric, improvised air balloons. Their characteristic shape derives from the crowns of Yoruba chiefs, whose beaded headdresses featured veils to shield the Oba’s visage from the public, thus also protecting viewers from the chief’s power.

More broadly, the work of artist Nyugen E. Smith examines the universal human experiences of memory, trauma, and spirituality through the multifarious impacts of colonialism on the African diaspora. A first-generation Caribbean-American (born in Jersey City, New Jersey to Haitian and Trinidadian parents), Smith uses performance, found object sculpture, mixed media drawing, painting, video, photography, and writing to connect past upheavals with present political struggles.

In 2005, the artist began making “Bundlehouses” — multimedia drawings and found object sculptures — that recall the temporary shelters built by displaced migrants with whatever resources they have at hand (usually what they manage to bring with them or find where they camp). Both the Bundlehouses and Spirit Carriers speak powerfully and beautifully to the capricious circumstances and tenuousness and fragility of life in the contemporary world.

Smith's “Spirit Carriers,” were recently the subject of a solo project at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas and were presented by Sean Horton at the New Art Dealers Alliance Art Fair, Miami.

A portion of any proceeds from the sale of artwork from this series will be donated to The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.