Jeffrey Gibson speaks about creating Like a Hammer

Artist Jeffrey Gibson speaks about his process creating Like a Hammer, which is on view in the exhibition, The Body Electric, at the Frist Art Museum through April 23rd.

This major exhibition is devoted to one of today’s leading artists, whose multidisciplinary practice combines aspects of traditional Indigenous art and culture with a modernist visual vocabulary. Born in Colorado in 1972, Jeffrey Gibson is of Cherokee heritage and a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw. His vibrant work, which is represented in more than twenty permanent collections across the United States, is a call for Indigenous empowerment as well as queer visibility and environmental sustainability.

The Body Electric presents his recent paintings, sculpture, video, and installations, along with a large site-specific mural THE LAND IS SPEAKING | ARE YOU LISTENING. The exhibition’s title is inspired by a song written for the 1980 movie musical Fame, which drew from Walt Whitman’s poem “I Sing the Body Electric” from his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass. The lyrics reverently acknowledge our place in the natural world while honoring the universality of endings and beginnings.