New Art at Amtrak Installation at Washington Union Station

WASHINGTON - Debra Simon Art Consulting and Amtrak have announced a new site-specific installation by Nekisha Durrett at Washington Union Station. The installation, Farewell, We're Good and Gone was composed with AI-generated imagery. Durrett's work extends Amtrak's acclaimed Art at Amtrak series of rotating exhibitions.

Farewell, We're Good and Gone amplifies a central but often overlooked chapter in American history, The Great Migration. Durrett's installation references more than six million Black Americans who migrated from the American South to Northern, Midwestern, and Western states between 1916 and 1970, and the railways that made that movement possible. Durrett used Midjourney AI to create her own archive of adventurous, hopeful Black figures and placed them throughout the foreground, touching on her family's journey from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., in search of better economic and educational opportunities.

"There's a certain clarity you get in generating these AI images that you don't get from looking at some historical photographs," Durrett said. "This hyper-realism makes the images almost more real than a photograph from the time. It is a very tactile world; you can see the dust particles floating in the air, the pores in someone's skin, or that they were sweating. I want all travelers, especially those shaped by the Great Migration, to see their own families and imagine what that journey might have felt like-how it shaped not only their futures, but American culture itself."

The figures and objects are set within a triangular grid with a gradual color gradient. The grid is inspired by the intricate cathedral-like windows in Washington Union Station's Great Hall as well as by brightly colored geometric motifs used by Black quilters. Quilts were integral to individuals fleeing the South during the period of slavery, as it has been speculated that the designs often encoded secret messages that offered direction or warning, another nod to hidden narratives by Durrett. Contemporary travelers stand below this expansive work and are reminded of how Black resilience motivated an inspiring pursuit for freedom during a time that was often full of fear and uncertainty.

"Amtrak is honored to host local artist, Nekisha Durrett's work at Washington Union Station," said Sharon Tepper, Amtrak's Director of Infrastructure Planning and Art at Amtrak Program. "We hope all passengers, the public and our neighbors are engaged and inspired by her work and discover something new about the station and themselves in their journey."

Art at Amtrak is co-conceived, curated, and produced by Debra Simon Art Consulting. Since Amtrak launched the program in June 2022 at New York Penn Station, it has expanded to Washington Union Station, Moynihan Train Hall in New York, and William H. Gray III 30^th Street Station in Philadelphia.

More information about Art at Amtrak and a complete list of artists can be found here.

About the Artist

Nekisha Durrett is a Washington, D.C., based mixed-media artist who uses the visual language of mass media to highlight histories that are not often celebrated. Her expansive practice includes public art, social practice, installation, painting, sculpture and design. Through deep research and material investigation, Durrett finds historical traces in the present that are filled with stories easily overlooked. Her work contemplates the unreliability of memory and how biases filter information over time. Durrett illuminates individual and collective histories of Black life and imagination, addressing her own younger self and the stories she wished she had learned.

Durrett earned her BFA at The Cooper Union in New York City and MFA from The University of Michigan School of Art and Design as a Horace H. Rackham Fellow. In 2023, she was the Howard University Social Justice Consortium Fellow, and a finalist for the Janet and Walter Sondheim Art Prize. Durrett has recently been awarded the commission for the ARCH Project at Bryn Mawr College in partnership with Monument Lab. Keep up with the artist via Instagram @nekishadurrett and her website www.nekishadurrett.com.

More information about Art at Amtrakcan be found here.

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