Skip to content
Exhibition

Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine)

July 1, 2024–Spring 2026
Floor 1
The public can access this exhibition for free in the Roberts Family Gallery on Floor 1

Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine)
A Respite for the Weary Time-Traveler.
Featuring a Rite of Ancient Intelligence Carried out by The Gardeners
Toward the Continued Improvement of the Human Specious
by
Kara E-Walker

Kara Walker has long been recognized for her incisive examinations of the dynamics of power and the exploitation of race and sexuality. Her work leverages expressions of fantasy and humor to confront troubling histories and dominant narratives, repossessing control in the process. Inspired by a wide range of sources, from antique dolls to Octavia Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower, Walker’s new commission, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), considers the memorialization of trauma, the objectives of technology, and the possibilities of transforming the negative energies that plague contemporary society. Here, automatons trapped in a never-ending cycle of ritual and struggle are repositories of the human soul. They recall mechanized medieval icons that evidenced divinity, vitality, and the promise of faith. Situated within an energetically charged field of black obsidian from Mt. Konocti in Lake County — a volcanic glass with deep spiritual properties — Walker’s Gardeners evoke wonder, reflection, respite, and hope. Just past this prophetic vignette, the installation’s namesake, Fortuna, responds to each visitor with a choreographed gesture and a printed fortune fresh from her mouth — an offering of absolution and contemplation.

Learn more about Kara Walker.

Exhibition Preview

Kara Walker, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), 2024 (installation view, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Kara Walker, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and Sprüth Magers; photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Kara Walker, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), 2024 (installation view, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Kara Walker, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and Sprüth Magers; photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Kara Walker, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), 2024 (installation view, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Kara Walker, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and Sprüth Magers; photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Kara Walker, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), 2024 (installation view, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Kara Walker, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and Sprüth Magers; photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Kara Walker, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), 2024 (installation view, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Kara Walker, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and Sprüth Magers; photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Kara Walker, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), 2024 (installation view, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Kara Walker, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and Sprüth Magers; photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

Kara Walker: Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine)

Experience Kara Walker’s new commission, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), which considers the memorialization of trauma, the objectives of technology, and the possibilities of transforming the negative energies that plague contemporary society. Watch the processes and experiments that drive Walker’s newest public work and discover its connections to the cultural history of the Bay Area.

Special Thanks: Kara Walker Studio
Design: Kara Walker and Mike Koller
In-house fabrication: Justice Thomas
Project management: Petra Schmidt
Registration: Allison Calhoun

Exhibition Production
Technical lead: Noah Feehan
Automata design and build: Hypersonic
Costume design: Gary Graham
Furniture fabrication: New Project
Upholstery: Stitchroom
Excavation: Broderick General Engineering

Additional thanks to Obsidian Wine Co.

Major support for Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine) is provided by Roberta and Steve Denning Commissioning Endowed Fund and Sir Deryck and Lady Va Maughan.

Significant support is provided by Jim Breyer, Mary Jane Elmore, Agnes Gund, Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida, Jessica Moment, Diana Nelson and John Atwater Commissioning Fund, Deborah and Kenneth Novack, Sonja Hoel Perkins and Jonathan Perkins, SFMOMA Contemporaries, and Lydia Shorenstein.

Meaningful support is provided by Alka and Ravin Agrawal, Ethan Beard and Wayee Chu, Agnes Cowles Bourne Bay Area Contemporary Arts Exhibition Fund, Davis/Dauray Family Fund, Patricia W. Fitzpatrick Commissioning Endowed Fund, Girlfriend Fund, Sheri and Paul Siegel Exhibition Fund, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., and Denise Littlefield Sobel Commissioning Endowed Fund.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

Additional support is provided by The Jay DeFeo Foundation.

In-kind production support provided by Kvadrat and Obsidian Wine Co.

Header image:Kara Walker, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), 2024 (installation view, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art); commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Kara Walker, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co. and Sprüth Magers; photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio