On Erasure: Art, Design, and the Power of Removal

Just as Robert Rauschenberg once erased a Willem de Kooning drawing to make his own mark, artists and designers in Nashville today navigate their own gestures of removal, deciding what to keep, what to cover, and what to let go in a rapidly changing city. On Erasure is a cross-disciplinary panel exploring erasure as both technique and metaphor, from taped-off lines and painted-over layers to collage, digital manipulation, memory, and place. 

The event brings together graphic designers, painters, architects, and photographers for conversation and hands-on engagement. Participants will create their own erasure-based collages in breakout sessions that spark larger group discussion on erasure and resisting it. Together, we'll ask: What does it mean to erase, obscure, or revise? How do these acts reflect our social and urban landscapes? And what space might erasure create for something new to emerge?