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Layers + Lines, a Golden Triangle Arts project, brought together two pieces of art— Axis Mundi by NYC-based artist Kate Raudenbush, and Up ‘til Now by DC-based artist Nekisha Durrett. The public art exhibition explored the layers of history in the Golden Triangle neighborhood, the geometries of our built environment, and the lines connecting us to our community. Both projects told different stories about the neighborhood and the viewer’s surroundings.
Kate Raudenbush’s Axis Mundi was located at Connecticut and K Street, north of Farragut Square, and Nekisha Durrett’s Up ‘til Now sculpture was on the Connecticut Avenue Overlook, just south of Dupont Circle.
The exhibition was on display from April 2019 through October 2020. It was made possible through a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Additional support was provided by Share Fund.
by Nekisha Durrett
In Up ’til Now, Nekisha Durrett evokes the history of the area’s landscape and architecture. She envisions the forests, thickets, marshes, and springs from hundreds of years ago gradually giving way to the roadways, infrastructure, and buildings that shape our built environment today. Looking through the peephole on the front of the structure, one could see a diorama invoking the rolling terrain blanketing DC hundreds of years ago before colonial times. Durrett also referenced the Victorian rowhomes later populating this area through the architectural shape and ornamentation on her sculpture.
Durrett is based in Washington, DC.
by Kate Raudenbush
Kate Raudenbush’s Axis Mundi is a futuristic landmark echoing the shape of an ancient obelisk, a monument used to mark places of importance. The sculpture references the dynamic diagonal lines of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s city plan for Washington, DC and star patterns that connect to the sky above.
The modern obelisk marked this site, while a mirrored sphere reflected the people who surround it and form the vital center of our city.
Raudenbush is a self-taught sculptor. Born in DC, she now lives and works in New York City. She creates large-scale artworks around the world, including for the iconoclastic Burning Man event in Nevada and the recent No Spectators: Beyond the Renwick outdoor exhibition here in the neighborhood, co-presented by the Golden Triangle BID.
