New Body of Work by Sherrill Roland to Debut at Nasher Museum

Sherrill Roland
Artist Sherrill Roland. (Photo J Caldwell / Courtesy Nasher Museum)

This September, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University premiered Processing Systems: Numbers by Sherrill Roland, featuring new works of art and research materials by artist Sherrill Roland from his ongoing exploration of the criminal justice system and inspired by the cases of people wrongfully convicted in North Carolina. Roland’s interdisciplinary practice deals with concepts of innocence, identity, and community, reimagining their social and political implications in the context of the American criminal justice system.

For more than three years, Roland’s right to self-determination was lost to wrongful incarceration. After spending ten months in prison for a crime for which he was later exonerated, he returned to his artistic practice that he now uses as a vehicle for self-reflection and an outlet for emotional release. Converting the haunting nuances of his experiences into drawings, sculptures, multimedia objects, performances, and participatory activities, Roland shares his story and creates space for others to do the same, illuminating the invisible costs, damages, and burdens of incarceration.

“Sherrill Roland’s large-scale works are a powerful commentary on the lasting impact of our criminal justice system,” said Trevor Schoonmaker, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. “This exhibition is also a testament to the cross-disciplinary nature of Roland’s practice, and his willingness to continue to experiment with new forms and ideas, pushing himself to work in new mediums. We know that Roland’s personal journey and his commitment to exploring the longstanding effects of wrongful incarceration through his art will resonate with Museum visitors and create a space for dialogue about an underexamined facet of our society.” 

Pedro Lasch watches as Sherrill Roland speaks in front of one of his artworks the
Pedro Lasch (back) is the co-curator of Sherril Roland's "Processing Systems" exhibit, currently on display at the Nasher Museum (J Caldwell/Nasher Museum)

"Creating new art with a world-class artist like Sherrill, whose beautiful works always incorporate thorough research and highly relevant social concerns, is just the kind of thing a research university can do, and I am very grateful to the Mellon Foundation and all our campus collaborators for making it all possible," said Pedro Lasch, Research Professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies and Director of the Social Practice Lab at Duke and the exhibition’s co-curator.

Lasch and Roland look at a 3D printer
Roland's artwork is composed of individually 3D printed plastic pieces. (J Caldwell/Nasher Museum)

Processing Systems is part of a cross-disciplinary project that critically examines United States Federal and State Correctional Identification Numbers, which are assigned to inmates upon incarceration and historically have been used to reduce individuals to a series of digits. Refuting the dehumanizing and anonymizing aspects of this system, Roland uses these digits to generate number-based artworks that follow specific rules, like sudoku puzzles, which helped him pass the time while he was wrongfully incarcerated before he was exonerated in 2015. 

“In this new body of work, Roland makes his first foray into portraiture with these conceptual depictions of wrongfully incarcerated individuals in North Carolina,” said Julia McHugh, Trent A. Carmichael Director of Academic Initiatives and Curator of Arts of the Americas at the Nasher Museum and the exhibition’s co-curator. “Drawing inspiration from works in our collection and from the true stories of other wrongfully convicted individuals through conversations at Duke’s Wilson Center for Science and Justice, Roland crafts compelling ‘portraits’ of these individuals through the correctional identification numbers that, in the eyes of the state, defined their existence when they were incarcerated but cannot encapsulate their humanity.” 

 

Related Events

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Nasher Museum will present the following public program:

  • A panel discussion, co-hosted by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice, on the wide-ranging impacts of the criminal legal system on individuals and communities. Students, attorneys, and advocates will be in conversation with artist Sherrill Roland on Thursday, October 10, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

 

Exhibition Organization and Support

  • Processing Systems is co-curated by Pedro Lasch, Research Professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies and Director of the Social Practice Lab at Duke, and Julia McHugh, Trent A. Carmichael Director of Academic Initiatives and Curator of Arts of the Americas at the Nasher Museum.
  • Presented as the culmination of a two-year Mellon Foundation Artistic Research Initiative Fellowship at the Franklin Humanities Institute’s Social Practice Lab, the exhibition and its programming include collaborations and support from the Nasher Museum; the Office of Information Technology’s Colab & DesignHub; Duke’s Wilson Center for Science & Justice; the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies; Duke Arts; and the Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke. Processing Systems is made possible by Ruth (A.B.’81, P’11) and John Caccavale (A.B.’81, P’11).

 

Media Contacts

Hannah Holden / Aliyah Armstrong
Resnicow and Associates
hholden@resnicow.comaarmstrong@resnicow.com
212-671-5154 / 212-671-5179