Fred Wilson

(Mining the Museum)

Bio:

-Fred Wilson was born in 1954 in the bronx

-He describes himself as of “African, Native American, European and Amerindian” descent.

-He received his BFA from Purchase College in New York and later focused his practices towards rearranging art and artifacts in museum collections to reveal the inherent racism that is often overlooked.

-This developed into his exhibition “Mining the Museum” which became his most famous piece. He gained important recognition from this collection

-He was later chosen to represent the United States at the Biennial Cairo and the Venice Biennale (visual arts initiatives which support Egyptian and international contemporary art)

-He is also a trustee at the Whitney Museum and the SculptureCenter

-Wilson is represented by the Pace Gallery in New York

 

Project: Mining the Museum

Mining the Museum is a museum installation in which artist Fred Wilson created an exhibition in the Maryland Historical Society which served as an intervention. In saying this, Fred Wilson reworked existing museum artifacts. In these artifacts, most of the work had investigated the African American and Native American experiences in Maryland.  

By being given free reign of the museum, Wilson was able to use this site to showcase the power of objects in relation to government/museum practice. Rearranging the site redefines the historical objects on display. He is giving a new voice to artifacts that have been buried by “Eurocentric” views and tradition.

 

-appropriated Picassos’ Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

-Picasso had been inspired by ethnographic collections and tribal masks from ‘primitive’ cultures when making Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

– nudes with tribal masks

 

“Museums are afraid of what they will bring to the surface and how people will feel about certain issues that are long buried. They keep it buried, as if it doesn’t exist, as though people aren’t feeling these things anyway, instead of opening that sore and cleaning it out so it can heal.”- Fred Wilson 

Process 

Wilson was given the artistic freedom from the museum to curate and display anything that he wanted. He had visited the museum over a year period and then remained on site for the last two months before the exhibition opening. He had also worked with volunteer and various curators of African American history.

Other Work

Speak of Me as I Am: Chandelier Mori

Fred Willson’s installation Speak of Me as I Am in the U.S Pavilion at the 2003 Venice Biennale contains decorative objects that were commonly used in Venice. In the installation Wilson not only address personal themes such as regret, sadness, pain, trauma, memory, and fear; but also the exotic roles of African Americans in Venice during the Renaissance. The Murano glass chandelier represents race relations, privilege, and tradition in Venetian history. With his interest in both beauty and ugliness, he combines both themes in his work in order to depict African Slavery.

Links

http://www.archivesandcreativepractice.com/fred-wilson

https://beautifultrouble.org/case/mining-the-museum/

http://historyinpublic.blogs.brynmawr.edu/files/2016/01/Curator_Mining-the-Museum.pdf