History Through Visual Narratives- Fred Wilson’s Mining The Museum
Within the realm of museums and galleries, it's no revelation that institutions rather chose to remain blissfully ignorant when it comes to racial representation and the showcase of radical work. Not to mention the legions of artifacts and artworks stored away due to its unfavourable past- the specific censorship of colonial history and the subsequent erasure of liability. Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum (Metalwork 1793-1880), 1992-1993 exhibits the overlooked and excluded parts of American history through contrasting visual narratives. Wilson selectively highlight’s local African American history throughout the exhibition, in addition to presenting a unique perspective on both curating and interpreting art. Displaying truthful history as context, through the lense of audible and visual narratives.
Requested by The Contemporary, Baltimore, Wilson was granted full artistic reign to create an exhibition for the Maryland Historical Society with open use of all archives1; in which the large majority of artifacts selected came from their storage. Both he and curator Lisa Corrin worked closely for the production of Mining The Museum- as Wilson had total responsibility for all elements of the exhibition like arrangement and selection of artifacts; which plays a significant role in Metalwork 1793-1880. Wilson’s vision for this work- among the rest of the exhibition was highly conceptual. A Grand Street article quotes “Mining the Museum brings to life a cultural presence that have been buried beneath layers of neglect and deliberate exclusion”2, setting the tone for Metalwork.
Mining the Museum (Metalwork 1793-1880), 1992-1993
Arrayed within a plexiglass box, displays a sparkling-silver vessel set of 10, juxtaposed with rusted chaines that once held slaves. Upon initial inspection the two sets of devices uphold similarities and differences. Of similar nature, they’re both metal with relationships to people, however they differ by their intended use for their person. The contrast between material and purpose leads the spectators to think critically of its presentation, trailing to its intended narrative. Presumptivley, both sets could’ve been manufactured or distributed by the same association, made of akin materials, could even possibly travel to the same household; but benefit only one group. The work also strikes a sense of category, the arranged silver set is the crest of luxury and high class, whereas the brittle and unkept shackles sit tangled, almost taunted by its sourroundings. It's a message towards the era, a time capsule of when the two coexisted in colonial normalcy- yet in a way institutionally it remains in the lives of African Americans. Metalwork visually narrates the inequality between white and black folk, in both colonial era and present day America. Materialized through varying metals and their appearance, Wilson uses the craft of selective comparison to convey such weighted affairs. Promoting an alternative mode of viewing and presenting art within the museum space, while translating his subjects in a manner that fits the work best .
In the interworkings of curatorial liberties, and contrasting narratives remains integral to the understanding and interpreting of Metalwork- as well as the rest of the exhibition. In this particular instance, narrative acts both as the guiding blocks through thematic organization and the very context of the jarring artifacts. Here, narrative is the ultimate revelation, speaks of beauty, ugly, truth and confrontation. Narrative is the core of all libreities, the visual language of perspective and new thought, the birth of new wave conceptualism.
In further elaboration regarding the creative liberties in place that guided the visual narrative, Wilson and Corrin’s artistic direction produced a new way of presenting and viewing art that subsequently changed the art world. Many attributed this exhibition to ahistorical curating, essentially taking two works from different time periods for comparison, drawing a cohesive symbolic theme, creating a new found work and meaning through comparison. In the case of Metalwork, the Silver set is compared to the slave chains. Gerald McMaster’s text in Art History Through the Lense of The Present suggests a similar take on curating and exhibiting. Offering an alternative perspective of curating within the institution that results in the subsequent changing in the viewer’s perspective and knowledge. The article details the path leading to the modern future of the gallery, where organizers pondered unique and essentially new modes of presentation. “In other words, there are different ways of viewing art, and the new presentations enabled visitors to ask new questions.” 3 relating to the reorganization [reopening] of the Canadian wing and the ways in which curatorial liberties were taken; delivering a new outlook on presented works. An example to define the new presentation style in McMaster’s writing highlights the organization of the space, being that it was categorized thematically, under "memory," "myth," and "power", allowing theme as visual language. In exact similarity to Mining the Museum, rooms were aslo organized thematically, being colour coded by their walls and text. In addition, the quote aforementioned speaks to the motion of wanting to create new ways to look, interpret and showcase art in ways that can alter one’s perspective or think abstractly about what's being presented. Metalwork achieved this through its use of ahistorical curation that presented itself as a visual narrative, leading the viewer to clue as to why there's a comparison, and apply the context to the art concluding their interpretations.
In summary, Fred Wilson’s Mining The Museum (Metalworks) presents a contemporary and ever lasting effect on the art world. In aspects of curatorial liberties, artistic intervention and the integration of narrative, the exhibition brings forward African American history and its impact on present day affairs through the comparison of artifacts, generating a new found work. In ways similar to Gerald McMasters4 analysis on unique modes of viewing and presenting art, Wilson and Corrin fostered ahistorical-curating by means of utilizing a new approach to better deliver Wilson’s making, in ways that could better translate its subject. Narrative plays an important role within this piece being the unspoken frame that guides both the artist in making, and the viewer and interpreting. Through visual comparison of artifacts, the ahistorical work narrates the intended theme and context, absolutely integral to the experience.
Sources:
McMaster, Gerald. “Art History through the Lens of the Present?” Journal of Museum Education 34, no. 3 (2009): 215–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/10598650.2009.11510638
Wilson, Fred, and Howard Halle. “Mining the Museum.” Grand Street, no. 44 (1993): 151–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/25007622