Materialising
Slavery: Art, Artefact, Memory and Identity to Open at the
Institute of Jamaica
The Museums of History and Ethnography and the National Gallery of Jamaica will
open the exhibition, “Materialising
Slavery: Art, Artefact, Memory and Identity” on Sunday September 16,
2007 at 10:30 a.m. An exploration of the complex relationships between slavery,
identity and belonging in contemporary
Jamaica
, Materialising
Slavery: Art, Artefact, Memory and Identity examines the intersection
of slavery, history, trauma, memory and representation.
Materialising Slavery is a four part exhibition, which will be mounted at the Institute
of Jamaica Exhibition Galleries and the National Gallery of Jamaica. It is organized
to coincide with the national and international events to mark the bicentenary of
the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Trade in Africans and is one of the signature
events of the Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee.
Parts one and two of the exhibition, titled
Materializing Slavery and
Art, Memory and Identity
1
will be mounted at the IOJ and will include objects such as implements of torture,
logs of the enslaved, ceramics to commemorate Emancipation as well as installations
from leading Jamaican artists such as David Boxer, Christopher Irons and Khalfani
Ra.
According to Wayne Modest, Director of the
Museums of History and Ethnography, “The Institute of Jamaica is pleased to present
an Installation by award-winning American artist, Fred Wilson, entitled
“An Account of a Voyage to the Island JAMAICA
with the UN-NATURAL HISTORY of that Place.” This
installation will also be
mounted in the Institute of Jamaica Galleries. “This title,” Mr. Modest continued,
“is a play on Hans Sloane’s “A Voyage to the Islands
Madera, Barbados
, Nieves,
S.
Christophers and
Jamaica
, with the Natural History of the Herbs and Trees, Four-footed Beasts, Fishes, Birds,
Insects, Reptiles, &c. Of the last of those
ISLANDS
”.
The work
explores the ways in which the control of the natural world was important to the
project of colonization. This installation is timely as the year 2007 also marks
the 300th anniversary of the first publication of Hans Sloane’s book,
as well as the 300th anniversary of the birth of the ‘Father
of Taxonomy’
Carl Linnaeus.
Fred Wilson is widely known for his work with slavery objects and his ability to
rearrange museum collections. Utilising the same design techniques of the museum,
Wilson
’s work is also a critique of museum practice. His installations attempt to draw
attention to the histories that museums tell as well as those that are silenced.
In his work “Cabinet Making” at the Maryland
Historical Society (1992),
Wilson
created an installation using four elegant parlour chairs facing a whipping post
from a
Maryland
jail. This whipping post was an object
from the museums collection that had never been exhibited.
Wilson
represented the Unites States at the 2003 Venice Biennale, and has
been recognised by institutions such as the National Endowment of the Arts and the
MacArthur Foundation. In June of this year, he was awarded a Honourary Doctorate
from
Northwestern University
. This is the first time that his work will be shown in the
Caribbean
. His installation
is funded through the kind sponsorship of the Florence H. and Eugene E. Myers Charitable
Trust Fund and is part of a collaborative project between the
Institute
of
Jamaica
and
Northwestern
University
entitled, Out of Sight:
New World
Slavery and the Visual Imagination.
The National Gallery will host
Iconographic Reconstruction: The Black Image 1900-1980
and
Art, Memory and Identity II, parts three and four of the exhibition.
Iconographic Reconstruction examines the efforts of the artists from
the Nationalist movement to rethink the visual representation of Blacks in
Jamaica
, as they participated in the drive for independence from the colonial power,
Britain
. Art, Memory and Identity II will feature
works by Marvin Bartley, Christopher Clare, Renee Cox, Laura Facey, Petrona Morrison,
among others.
The exhibits are drawn from the Collections of the Museums of History and Ethnography,
The Natural History Division, The National Library of Jamaica and the National Gallery
of Jamaica. The exhibition ends December 31, 2007.
Contact:
Latoya Pennant, Public Relations Officer
Institute of Jamaica
Tel:
Work: 922-0620-6
Cell: 313-3016
Email:
pr.ioj@mail.infochan.com