New York–based multidisciplinary artist LaJuné McMillian combines extended reality software and mediums including movement and sound to provide an exuberant visual critique of oppressive systems that commodify bodies and otherwise limit free expressions. Working with motion capture (witnessing) software, their work often translates the movements of Black people, seen as both individual and cultural identifiers, into dizzying rhythms and explosive patterns and sounds.

Integrating movement, sound, and prayer, The Portal’s Keeper—Origins features the three-part installation Spirit and Child, a series of prayers of healing and gratitude between avatars called the Child and the Spirit Guide, created using motion-capture and 3D-modeling software. As the two avatars share philosophies and prayers seeking to help “Black children trying to find their way home,” they confirm that home lies within themselves—the children are already there. 

In addition to video animation, the exhibition includes a 3D-printed cast of the artist’s face, surrounded by yaki hair and a video of their mother working on their hair. The artist considers this self-portrait to be part of a process of healing from the traumas that they experienced as a child. “Growing up,” they say, “I associated my relationship with my hair to pain and sacrifice. Sitting long hours in uncomfortable positions, I was told and reminded that beauty was pain, and that my ability to sit in stillness even when suffering would be rewarded. . . . I often wonder how we teach young Black children about pain. How we associate pain with obedience.”  A series of holographic self-portraits will focus on the artist’s interest in bodily movement as an expression of liberation, while an interactive station will invite visitors to enter their own prayers for healing.

Image: LaJuné McMillian. Still from Spirit & Child, 2024. Video; dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist

Organized by the Frist Art Museum