Currents in an Ocean of Art

When I started the Smithsonian Leadership for Change internship at MoAD, I had absolutely no clue about how museums worked. I have grown up as an avid museum-goer and am incredibly lucky to have visited a variety of cultural institutions in my life; but despite being a "museum person" who enjoys strolls through galleries and staring at dioramas and paintings for hours on end, I had never learned of or thought about the inner workings of museums. One of the privileges of being museum-goers is that we don’t have to deal with the minute details that contribute to planning, executing, and sustaining an exhibition—instead, we reap the benefits of others’ work so that we can experience art. The first week of my internship was a whirlwind of being introduced to coworkers, sitting in on meetings, and getting acquainted with the current exhibitions. I had conducted preliminary research on the shows by watching artist talks and reading articles online, but sitting in front of my laptop at the kitchen table is no match for the real-life experience of stepping into the galleries and seeing the physical artwork. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work in-person at MoAD and be introduced to the wonderful world of museums. There were so many moving parts that I never knew existed and so many questions about the work that goes into creating an exhibition, which is why I wanted to interview Key Jo Lee, MoAD’s Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Public Programs and the brilliance behind the current exhibition Unruly Navigations.

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Unruly Navigations examines artistic actions made to grapple with oppressive systems—movements made to survive. It is a non-linear history of resistance and reflection, on view from March 27 to September 1, 2024. Sitting in Key Jo’s office, I am welcomed by large post-it notes on the walls with scribblings of future musings. There is an impressive bookshelf lining the wall with shelves full of literature, nonfiction, and theory. Small potted plants sit on the windowsill. The floating ideas in her office reminds me of the exhibition itself: the collections of thoughts on the post-it notes are like Oluseye’s diasporic debris, the in-office library of Black authors stands in stark contrast to Samuel Levi Jones’ Fragility, and the delicate yet powerful beauty of the plants remind me of vanessa german’s sculptures and Morel Doucet’s earthenware busts. So much thought went into the planning and execution of the exhibition: Key Jo tells me that she begins with a list of images and artists "and then I start to weave a narrative out of what the work is telling me," focusing on materiality, technique, placement, and story. From there, each department at MoAD has an essential role in sustaining, sharing, and strengthening the exhibition.

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All the artists in Unruly Navigations are grappling with something different, but the common thread connecting their work is that it is unruly. Key Jo explained to me that she chose the term "unruly" because it best describes the complexity and power of these personal navigations: "it’s aggressively against the status quo." The difficult history and etymology of the term offers flexibility to the exhibition—no one artist is navigating the same thing, but they are all conducting their voyages within systems of oppression through groundbreaking, disruptive art. The term "navigations" was chosen because of its sense of self-determination and agency; its plurality highlights that these movements are unique and that there is no singular form of unruly navigations. The non-linearities of the exhibition are a contrasting reminder of all the narratives and voices that get dropped when history is forced into a single paradigm. Unruly Navigations celebrates these artists and their stories as captains of their own voyages.

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The entire exhibition is free-flowing and unrestrained, conjuring images of large bodies of water. Key Jo has specifically chosen visual cues that hint at ocean travel, and the gallery walls are covered in natural shades of blue and green with cartographic imagery to reinforce this theme of nautical journeys. However, the exhibition purposefully departs from the Transatlantic slave trade, choosing instead to highlight stories that are often overlooked or forgotten within the diaspora. The experience of walking into the gallery space mirrors the concept behind the exhibition, and I feel myself being gently pulled by each artwork in every which direction. Unruly Navigations is a multi-sensory experience that envelops viewers in sounds of crushed ceramics, sharp tastes of fennel and ginger, and textural visuals. It’s the same feeling as drifting in a body of water where everything is connected by the same fluid, but ideas and individuals are free to move about between each artwork like they’re being pulled by gentle currents or the rise and fall of the tide. These flows change the way visitors move through not just the gallery space within MoAD, but the entire world around them. Now, I implore you to embark on your own journey: visit MoAD and experience Unruly Navigations in person—become untethered, float around, and see what pulls you in.

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