Fred Wilson was born in Bronx, New York in nineteen fifty-four. He studied art at Purchase College, University of New York. He creates his artworks in an unusual way by not making things by hand. He has more interest in arranging elements and exploiting material in a way that pleases him. By changing the situation of the object he can change the interpretation. In his works he continually questions curators and their interpretations of historical, artistic, cultural scenes in his own installations. His installation of Mining the Museum in 1992 was revolutionary.
Unpleasant artifacts and the forgotten history that went with them were stored out of view in Maryland’s Historical Museum’s basement. He gained full access into the basement and began staging objects where they could be viewed in a distasteful, yet beautiful manner. While the usual white upper-class visitors expected to view fine silver and vintage elegance, they felt uncomfortable and uneasy walking through Wilson’s instillation. He combines beauty and ugliness in ways that magnify their historical relevance, but also expresses the relation between the objects within the display. Old slave shackles were laid beside silver dining utensils tragically conveying the past of the each object.
An old 1885 slave whipping post was displayed with antique chairs facing toward the whipping post. This gives a horrific sight into how slaves were beaten by their “owners”. It exaggerates how the chairs are beautifully handcrafted, and how the whipping post is an ugly thing.
Slave wanted posters were arranged behind a nine foot long punt gun and much more were displayed throughout the museum. The installment lasted from April fourth, nineteen ninety-two to February twenty-eight, nineteen ninety-three. It was unsettling, but over five thousand people came to view the installment. He continued mining museums from around the world and displayed how they viewed their history in present day. Altering the arrangements of material, he can provide a completely different meaning to the objects breaking walls toward cultural and historical narratives. He played with different cultures and the way they see power and their political views along with their history.
I believe he is trying to convey that people want to forget the past and overlook the negativity. History should not be forgotten and stored out of sight. He does create installments that are offensive but captures them with pleasing composition for the eye without losing the emotion and uneasy feeling of the way the objects are arranged. He even takes other artworks to incorporate into his displays to match what he is trying to focus on.
In this installment of plaster made busts of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti he asks the question of the racial identity in ancient Egyptians. When I first viewed this, I thought of how Nefertiti was an inspiration for women’s beauty. Him coloring each head a different shade of skin tone equalizes beauty as not seen by a person’s skin color and implying that everyone is beautiful.
Even though he doesn’t create many pieces, the emotion and beauty behind his instillation’s are what drew me to his works. He sometimes incorporates classical art pieces with contemporary ideas. He does so well with arranging things to seem beautiful until you realize the meaning behind the objects, then it because an art piece full of emotion.
Inspired by Pietro Longhi paintings from the 18th century, Wilson’s interpretation includes 28 black glass panels that are framed with gold. The faces on the paintings are cut out revealing the white wall behind. The middle frame features a lighting fixture made of white Murano glass.
