Processing Systems: Numbers by Sherrill Roland opens at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University on September 19, 2024, and runs through January 12, 2025.
The exhibition features artworks, works in progress, and research materials by Sherrill Roland (b. 1984, Asheville, NC) from his ongoing exploration of the criminal justice system. The works are part of a cross-disciplinary project that critically examines United States Federal and State Correctional Identification Numbers, which are assigned to inmates upon incarceration and historically have been used to reduce individuals to a series of digits. Roland, who was wrongfully incarcerated in 2013, uses this numeric system to generate artworks that follow specific rules, like the sudoku puzzles that helped him pass time while he was in prison.
Accompanying the exhibition is an installation in the Trent A. Carmichael Academic Focus Gallery, curated by Roland. It features selections from the Nasher Museum’s permanent collection that depict prison architecture and the criminal justice system throughout history. A related installation, Processing Systems: Bonding by Sherrill Roland, is also on view at the Ackland Art Museum until July 13, 2025.