Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand, known for her powerful performances in "Fargo," "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," and "Nomadland," has ventured into the art world with a unique exhibition featuring adult-sized cradles. McDormand joined conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra at the opening of "Cradled," an immersive exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles that explores the end-of-life care practices of the Shaker religious community.
The exhibition showcases McDormand's versatility beyond her three Oscar-winning performances, which have consistently demonstrated her ability to portray characters with deep empathy and resilience. At the gallery opening, McDormand and Bocanegra personally rocked the cradles of Nancy Buchanan, 79, and Barbara T. Smith, 94, two prominent figures in the Los Angeles art scene, before guests were served traditional Shaker lemon pie.
"Cradled" draws inspiration from the Shakers, a Christian sect formally known as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing. The Shakers are renowned for their simple, communal lifestyle and ecstatic worship that included dancing and shaking, which gave the group its name. Today, the world's last active Shaker community exists at Sabbath Day Lake in Maine, consisting of only three members, though the group is experiencing renewed cultural interest.
The timing of the exhibition coincides with growing attention on Shaker history, including a new film "The Testament of Ann Lee," starring Amanda Seyfried as the woman who brought the Shakers from Britain to the American colonies in the 18th century. The "Cradled" exhibition specifically highlights how the Shakers, who embraced celibacy and often sheltered more elders than children, developed a sophisticated culture of end-of-life care.
Speaking from New York during a group Zoom call, McDormand reflected on the Shaker community's unique approach to relationships and communal living. "Here's a community where you are saved all the possessiveness, jealousy, enviousness – all the things that come along with carnal relations between men and women, men and men, women and women," she explained. "If you subtract that, how much more successful can a community be?"
McDormand challenged common misconceptions about the Shakers' longevity, stating, "Sometimes I get frustrated with the idea of, 'Oh, they only lasted so long as they didn't have children. They weren't having sex; of course they weren't successful.' In fact, they were successful for 200 years because of that." Bocanegra, who co-conceived and co-curated the exhibition, added, "That's what makes the cradle such an interesting object, because it's something we associate with an infant and yet, for the Shakers, it was used more for adults and for the end of life."
The exhibition features four authentic Shaker cradles on loan from Shaker museums spanning the country from New England to Kentucky. Each cradle is paired with a tableau of Shaker rocking chairs and woven baskets filled with projects, allowing visitors to participate in the literal and figurative act of mending – an activity central to Shaker values and philosophy.
Sharon Koomler, collections manager at the Shaker Museum in Chatham, New York, which provided materials from its archive for the show, offered insight into the practical and emotional significance of adult cradles. "The Shakers weren't the only ones in the world using an adult cradle, but we do find that it speaks to their tender care of people from the cradle to the grave, so to speak, from youth all the way through their advancing years and in their infirmities," she observed. "It is a way to soothe someone."
Drawing from her nursing background, Koomler explained the medical benefits: "From a former nursing background, I can tell you that rocking helps to prevent pressure sores because you're not leaving anybody on one pressure point, so there's a practical reason for it as well as the soothing emotional reason." Jerry Grant, the museum's director of library and collections, emphasized the communal aspect: "It was a two-person activity, so it meant that if you were being rocked there was somebody with you. When you had Shakers who were ill or dying, they were not left alone. The cradle gives an opportunity for both people to have purpose in that relationship."
McDormand's fascination with the Shakers originated from a performance she gave for the Wooster Group, a New York experimental theater company, based on an album of five Shaker women singing songs passed down through oral history. Through this work, she became acquainted with Koomler and Grant of the Shaker Museum and staged a preliminary version of the show at the museum's pop-up gallery in Kinderhook, New York.
"I was drawn to the adult-sized cradles in the collection because it was something that was provocative in its size and in its use for the infirm and elderly," McDormand explained. "I was honored to be asked to create something at the Kinderhook space. I had worked with Suzanne on some of her art lectures and she was one of the most interesting and funny conceptual artists I knew."
The "Cradled" exhibition is designed as an immersive, multi-sensory environment. Bocanegra and McDormand collaborated with composer David Lang, along with sound editors Skip Lievsay and Paul Umstron, to create an end-of-life lullaby that resonates throughout the gallery space. Lang adapted the text for his lullaby from a Shaker spiritual about eternal life, adding another layer of authenticity to the experience.
When asked how her career as a performer translates to the gallery setting, McDormand emphasized her intention to minimize traditional performance elements. "Well, I'm trying to do that as little as possible in my life, period, and also especially in this space," she replied. "We enter the space and work is what informs the space, not performance. We're trying to make it clear that people aren't coming to a performance. It's not performative; it's more experiential."
Bocanegra elaborated on their vision for visitor engagement: "We hope that people will feel free to be comfortable and sit. The audience decides how much time they want to spend with the piece and we try to make this installation the kind of thing where you felt like you were welcome and you could sit with it and you could contemplate and we're hoping that the longer you stay, the more you get out of it."
The Shaker movement has a rich historical background, having been born in Manchester, Britain, but formally established in America after Mother Ann Lee and a small group of followers arrived in 1774. The movement flourished for more than 200 years, dedicating themselves to pacifism, natural health, and hygiene. Their philosophy is encapsulated in sayings such as "Hands to work, hearts to God" and "Do your work as if you had a thousand years to live but as if you knew you might die tomorrow."
This focus on durable, useful craftsmanship rather than decoration resulted in an aesthetic of spare beauty that continues to influence design today. McDormand noted the universal appeal of this approach: "If you look at Japanese design, you look at Scandinavian design, you look at mid-century modern, you look at early American, it's not about decoration, it's about utility. But because of that and because of the attention that's given to it, it ends up being beautiful."
Grant provided deeper insight into the Shaker concept of simplicity: "People will say, 'I need to simplify my life.' The Shakers would say simplicity is a singleness of heart. Making your life simpler was to keep yourself simply focused on one thing and not let it get all cluttered up. That's a lesson that we can always learn. It's not about just getting rid of the stuff in your house, it's about what's inside."
Despite common misconceptions about religious communities, the Shakers were highly entrepreneurial and self-sufficient. A surprising discovery in the museum archive was a 1960s Barbie doll dressed in a custom Shaker outfit, created as a product for sale. This finding delighted McDormand, who noted, "For some reason, people think religious sects are constantly seeking funds or taking a vow of poverty, but they took care of themselves very well with seed collections and furniture and a lot of different things. One of them was doll clothes and so we saw one of the first Barbie dolls dressed in a Shaker outfit, which was exciting for us, being of our age group."
The Shakers also practiced charity, always planting a surplus to provide for their neighbors and those in need, demonstrating their commitment to community service beyond their own members. This balance of self-sufficiency and generosity reflects the complexity of their social and economic philosophy.
McDormand concluded by describing her relationship with Shaker philosophy: "I like to call us Shaker-adjacent. There's many of us that are Shaker-adjacent. We haven't been thoroughly able to embrace the theology, necessarily, but certainly the ethos and the community spirit." The "Cradled" exhibition runs at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles until January 4, offering visitors an opportunity to experience this unique intersection of art, history, and spiritual practice through McDormand and Bocanegra's thoughtful curation.
