As museums challenge their own definitions of inclusive public spaces, the interrogation itself is changing the way they present art.
At the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, painter and sculptor Thomas Sayre brings new, deeply personal work to his upcoming exhibition, Four Walls. Sayre is probably best known for his massive sculptures in public spaces, such as the Shimmer Wall on the Raleigh Convention Center, Gyre at the North Carolina Museum of Art, and other forms from his earth-casting process, “monumental structures made in and of the earth,” as he describes them.
Four Walls invokes the sacred but challenges our assumptions about what that means. Sayre says he’s exploring the complexity of the human experience – as a dance between good and evil.
But this new show also interrogates forms. Grammy-nominated musician Tift Merritt contributed old nightdresses from a now-closed, once-segregated mental hospital, which Sayre has incorporated into his art. She’ll join Sayre within those Four Walls for an unorthodox musical experience on September 28, 2024, as well as offer her own new show at the CAM on January 23, 2025.
All of this challenge to givens is leading to new experiences for the public at the CAM. In this episode of CoastLine, we hear from Thomas Sayre and Tift Merritt in segments 2 and 3, respectively. They explore their creative process as it unfolds together, through their creatively nurturing friendship. They also talk about their own creative process.
To begin, we meet the Cameron Art Museums’ Executive Director Heather Wilson, who says this collaboration perfectly expresses her desire to connect deeply with the community in a safe space.
Segment 1: Heather Wilson, Executive Director, Cameron Art Museum
Segment 2: Thomas Sayre, painter and sculptor, Four Walls creator
Thomas Sayre is a sculptor and painter probably best known for his public art projects – particularly his earthcastings. “(M)onumental structures made in and of the earth,” is the way he describes them. Other examples of his very large, public art installations include the Shimmer Wall on Raleigh’s Convention Center – where nearly 80,000 aluminum panels depict an oak tree fluttering in the wind. At night, LED lights slowly change colors in what Sayre calls “an ode to the sunset”.
His paintings often incorporate other materials – such as gunshots, fire, tar, smoke, earth.
Heather Wilson, Executive Director of the Cameron Art Museum, calls Thomas Sayre one of the most important contemporary artists working in North Carolina today. His new exhibition, Four Walls, opens at the CAM April 26, 2024.
Segment 3: Tift Merritt, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter, practitioner-in-residence, Duke University
Singer / songwriter Tift Merritt found early success in her music career as a touring artist. By 2004, she had earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album. All told, she’s produced eight albums and is developing number nine. While that’s in the works, she talks with us about her collaboration – both privately and publicly with visual artist Thomas Sayre. This public creative cooperation is the progression of what she describes as a creatively nourishing friendship. In a performance within Thomas Sayre’s upcoming exhibition, Four Walls, opening at the Cameron Art Museum April 26, 2024, she will offer four original songs in an unorthodox construct. And this is what she does: examine the givens of an art form, interrogate those forms, check in with herself to make sure she’s feeling extended. There’s no point, she says, in staying inside a box, whether created by the external world or herself.
