NASHVILLE – SPECIAL EDITION

April/May, 2021

Brian and I took the opportunity to visit a small “pop up” museum featuring the works of contemporary artists while we were in Nashville.  The curators chose an unoccupied retail store and worked with local artists to create a space for a show titled “Traveling Museum Project One:  ‘Radical’ Thoughts”.  Some of the funding for the exhibition came from the Museum of Contemporary Art Nashville (MOCAN). 

We don’t know about you, but when we recall our visits to Nashville, we remember scenes of drunken bachelors and/or bachelorettes being driven through the streets of the city on a party wagon, swilling alcohol, waving at strangers and singing along to loud obnoxious music.  Walking downtown Nashville you will hear the sounds of country star wannabes belting out country tunes day and night from the hundreds of jam-packed honkytonks.  The downtown is a bit of a hot mess, frankly, but in many ways, it has a seductive appeal to a certain crowd who loves to party and drink.  Nashville has a mystique and an allure to budding song writers who abandon everything to live and work in Nashville, hoping to write and perform THE song that will change their lives and get them to the Grand Old Opry. Perhaps a parallel experience awaits those who follow their acting dreams and move to New York or Los Angeles.

So imagine our surprise to find this tiny gallery tucked away in a little up-and-coming neighborhood in Nashville.  The idea behind the Traveling Museum Project is to “engage with the community, build awareness, and demonstrate the market need for a permanent contemporary art museum.”  The belief is that a community can change the world, and that “radical care and radical equality are things we all should want to be a part of.”

With this in mind, we entered the space.  To say the art we experienced was thought-provoking is an understatement. 

We have prefaced all of this to tell you how unprepared we were to watch a video of a trans woman who allowed us to go with her on her journey as she made the decision to have the life-altering surgery that would change her forever.  With tears running down her face, Barbara listened as the artist performed a spoken word piece describing in uncensored detail the procedure she went through.  She was unemotional as she let us into her world and allowed us to go with her on this most remarkable journey.  She was playful and laughing at times – she seemed genuinely joyful about her choice.  On a pedestal in a jar next to the video that looped over and over were her testicles. 

Barbara is still reeling at the courage it took for this amazing young artist to be so intimate and so open with her audience, fully aware, we are sure, that not everyone who chooses to engage with her and this remarkable piece will fully appreciate the depth and the honesty of her video.  We are grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of this “radical” exhibit.  There were many other incredible pieces, but this one has had the most long-lasting and profound effect on both of us.

Barbara and Brian

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.“ – Henry David Thoreau