Megan Nolde / singly, none

October 25 – November 16, 2024

Printmaking, Installation, Performance

Artist Statement:
“Step by step, the longest march
Can be won, can be won.
Many stones can form an arch
Singly none, singly none.
And by union, what we will
Can be accomplished still.
Drops of water turn a mill
Singly, none; singly, none.”

Credited to Pete Seeger; words sourced from a preamble to the constitution of the first mineworkers’ union in the United States.

My childhood and teenage years were rooted in the rural spaces of the Shenandoah Valley, and in the stories of my family’s history. My grandparents and mom were raised in those same parts of the world, and recounted stories of community barn-raisings; lending a hand on a crop harvest because you knew that family would lend a hand when it was time to process your hogs; and as a kid, knowing you “couldn’t get away with anything” because the neighbor was looking out for you like their own child, and would call home about your misdeeds before you ever got in the front door.

And now, in a societal zeitgeist of isolation, immediacy, and individualism, to care for the wider community is a revolutionary act. It is radical to think long-term when we are propagandized towards short-shelf-life products and the myopia of “profit-first.” And yet, I see revolutionaries everywhere in my communities - meal trains after someone’s illness; another’s voluntary hours of service for a struggling charity; choosing to give grace in conflict rather than lean into anger; planting pollinator gardens in your own backyard.

I’ve observed that at the core of these kinds of choices is a groundedness in trust, and a shared denial of ego’s desires. This exhibition is an attempt to ask you to choose trust, patience, and humility - through sharing, making, and listening - as a step towards the world we might make possible. Learning a new skill, such as crocheting, is a way we can connect, dream, and create something from very little. Exchanging a self-published zine is sharing your own way of seeing the world, so someone else might better understand it (and maybe you, theirs). All of this requires taking small risks, which is how we learn to take bigger ones, generating the trust and patience required for real progress.

Revolution does not always come knocking with banners and violence; in fact, it rarely does so, because so many of our quietest, kindest, and most generative acts are still radical in the face of the way we are told to live. Humans are made to live connected to each other. We survive in networks of mutuality, and thrive in the world they make possible. I invite you, with this exhibition, to practice the way the world can and could be, helping me make visible what’s possible for us all.

Biography:
Megan Nolde is an artist living and working in Richmond, Virginia. She keeps a studio at home, and works in printmaking, drawing, installation, and performance.

Megan originally hails from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds dual BFA’s from Virginia Commonwealth University (Printmaking, Art Education) and an MFA in Printmaking from Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. She has shown in Philadelphia, PA; Trenton, NJ; Harrisburg, PA, Richmond, VA, and Harrisonburg, VA. ​She also owns SAGE, a small business focused on strategic consulting and support for small nonprofits, businesses, and community organizers.

Website: meganleighnolde.com
Instagram: @huzzah_factory