How Mining the Museum Changed the Art World by Kerr Houston c/o BmoreArt
Overview
The influence of Fred Wilson’s seminal 1992 intervention at the Maryland Historical Society is at once easily summarized and remarkably complex
Key Takeaways
On recontextualizing historical artifacts to reveal hidden truths:
Gradually, then, a goal emerged. “I was aware,” recalled Wilson, “that I wanted to bring people in with a lot of head-scratching and curiosity, but not hit them over the head with the most shocking thing. I wanted people to come in and realize that they had to do some work, to put it together.” Such a spirit was discernible, for example, in Wilson’s decision to greet visitors with a silver-plated century-old trophy for truth in advertising: emblazoned, rather ridiculously, with the word TRUTH, the globe-shaped award quietly but insistently prompted viewers to confront the term’s brazen absolutism. Which truth? Whose truth? Quietly but insistently, Wilson was pressuring the idea of a master narrative, and challenging the museum’s role as a nominally objective arbiter.
Such a process could involve a sort of soft coercion; thus, as Ciscle observed at one point, “people were intentionally manipulated through the exhibition.” The arrangement of objects was carefully plotted, evincing an interest in pacing and variation. But Wilson also took advantage of the force of the unexpected.
That willingness to deviate from the standard course was visible, for example, in his placement of a Ku Klux Klan robe – which had been donated, anonymously, to the Historical Society – in a baby carriage. Folded carefully into the diminutive stroller, the robe proved to be an especially haunting detail, as it suggested that racism is learned, inculcated, or even nurtured.
Installation view of Mining the Museum (baby carriage and hood)
On the personal proximity we have to history:
Such details may seem trivial, but they were arguably emblematic of even larger difficulties that immediately faced the Historical Society following the opening of Mining the Museum. “It was kind of overwhelming for them,” remembered Wilson. “It was a good thing, but they couldn’t stay the same; that was the problem for them. You couldn’t put the genie back in the bottle.” The still surface had been rent; the master’s house dismantled, with the master’s tools. And of course the consequences soon spilled beyond the walls of the MHS. Wilson still recalls his astonishment at realizing, during the opening reception, that the descendants of both the slave owner and the slave named in one of the 19th-century broadsheets were both in attendance. “It was personal,” Wilson said. “I didn’t know that extent of that.”
Full Article: https://bmoreart.com/2017/05/how-mining-the-museum-changed-the-art-world.html