NAN GOLDIN TURNS HER LENS

Considering The Unraveling

Header: The Crowd, Paternò Nan Goldin, The Crowd, Paternò, 2004. Copyright Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian; Cover: Nan Goldin, Orpheus Dying. Courtesy of the artist

BY: Jes Zurell

Buckle up – Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong opens at Hayward Gallery in London on November 24, 2026. The immersive show, which beckons viewers to shuffle ankle-deep through the rubble of real life, marks Goldin’s first return to the United Kingdom since 2002, fresh from the global tour of her major retrospective, This Will Not End Well.

Nan Goldin, Joey On David's Bed, Brooklyn, 1999. Courtesy of the artist
Nan Goldin, Joey On David’s Bed, Brooklyn, 1999. Courtesy of the artist
Nan Goldin, My Horse Roma Outside Luxor Egypt 2003. Courtesy of the artist
Nan Goldin, My Horse Roma Outside Luxor Egypt 2003. Courtesy of the artist

The curation stirs a compulsory conversation around fragility at a time when everything, everything, in societies around the world feels about half as sturdy as spun sugar, as stable as  a sauced uncle four drinks in at the family holiday fête. In that way, there could be no better time to consider the unraveling of human, animal, and environmental existence.

Nan Goldin, Two graces, 2010. Copyright Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Nan Goldin, Two graces, 2010. Copyright Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Nan Goldin, Eternal Spring, Rodin. Courtesy of the artist
Nan Goldin, Eternal Spring, Rodin. Courtesy of the artist

We can almost smell the must of the basements, the cracked leather of the bench seating in vintage cars, and the can’t-remember-the-last-time-you-showered skin of the crowds at a dimly-lit party as we spend time with Goldin’s works. The photos are widely varied for Goldin, spanning time and content, but she leaves us a clue to what struck her most in combing through her own thoughts: A photograph from 1998 of a grave marker in a pet cemetery, its white marble covered in the stains of age which reads, “You never did anything wrong” beneath the birth and death dates of the lost companion.

Electric Gaja, Paris Nan Goldin, Electric Gaja, Paris, 2010. Copyright Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Electric Gaja, Paris Nan Goldin, Electric Gaja, Paris, 2010. Copyright Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Nan Goldin, Joey with Hermaphrodite. Courtesy of the artist
Nan Goldin, Joey with Hermaphrodite. Courtesy of the artist
Gravestone in pet cemetery, Lisbon Nan Goldin, Gravestone in pet cemetery, Lisbon, 1998. Copyright Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian
Gravestone in pet cemetery, Lisbon Nan Goldin, Gravestone in pet cemetery, Lisbon, 1998. Copyright Nan Goldin. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian

The photo packs the full weight of the innocence lost – and the innocence we yet stand to lose – in spite of ourselves or because of us. The effect of this one shot among all the greasy, complicated, horny and exhausting examples of the human experience is enough to make us feel like our ribs may well collapse in on themselves.

That reckoning is the most powerful effect a body of art can have. The question it leaves us with is, what do we do now?

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