“HOME | BODY” is an exhibition that opened in the Frankie G. Weems Gallery on Sept. 5 and will remain open through Oct. 1. The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. This exhibition features the work of interdisciplinary artist Nathan Grimes. Grimes is an artist born in North Carolina and raised in Florida, who is now based in Holly Springs. Todd Jones, the Gallery Director at Meredith, explains that the exhibition “is a collection of psychophysiological self-portraits of coping with the effects of the artist’s chronic traumatic childhood environment.” According to Jones, Grimes’ works “serve as a map—an abstraction of complex feelings and difficult moments of the former self extracted from lived experience, suspended in time and viewed from a safe distance.”
The works Grimes has displayed are colorful, interactive, maximalist and striking. Nathan Grimes has an acute awareness of every aspect of his work and considers all dimensions, splitting them up into the support, substrate and surface. Grimes thinks of each piece as a body, and similar to the human body, each piece is composed of various materials that work together to build one cohesive entity. Grimes himself compared this process as thinking of a body peeled back and laying bare. He uses trash, words, music, poetry and engineering to convey his messages.
Nathan Grimes is influenced by his traumatic childhood experiences and how they manifest into his life as an adult. These experiences are also shaped by his involvement in Evangelism and how these beliefs quickly became apocalyptic in nature. Throughout his work, Grimes uses Biblical numerology and his own system of numerology that he created for his life. He explores the theme of complex trauma by diving into the long lasting symptoms, including fragmentation, anxiety, body tension, intense conflicting emotions, low self worth, loneliness and depression. One way he conveys this is through his use of guitar strings to indicate body tension. Because strings can only be played when they are tightly strung, the sound they make is reflective of tension and is released through music. While going into detail about complex trauma, he also frequently displays themes of healing.
During the question and answer session with Grimes at the gallery opening, an interaction between Grimes and an audience member stuck out to me. The man in the row in front of me had entered the artist talk closer to the end, and during the question and answer session, he told Grimes that he had just taken a walk through the gallery to look at the displayed work. The man explained that while looking at Grimes’ work he had wanted to touch the pieces, but before doing so, he took a look around the room for anyone who may see him. The pieces Grimes has displayed are meant to be touched, but there are no indications of such. The man compared his anxiety as an audience member to his personal experience with an Evangelical upbringing and how there can be wrath associated with independence. This resonated with the themes of this exhibition and seemed to resonate with Grimes, as well.
Grimes has a sense of humor that cuts through the darker themes that were prevalent when dissecting this exhibition, creating the feeling that he was reaching out and pulling you forward through the conversation. When discussing themes of loneliness and traumatic experiences, it’s clear that the pieces in this exhibition are not only autobiographical, but a pivotal part of his path towards healing.
By Liese Devine, Features Editor