Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations, 1979-2000

Abstract

Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations, 1979-2000 explores the artist’s sustained aesthetic inquiry into the relationship between art and the museum. Wilson’s “mock” museum installations, into which he places provocative and beautifully rendered objects, explore the question of how the museum consciously or unconsciously perpetuates prejudice. If social justice is Wilson’s ultimate subject, the museum itself becomes his medium—from the use of meticulously fabricated objects to the careful selection of wall colors, lighting, display cases, and even wall labels. Sometimes the artist reconfigures and supplements the collection of an actual museum—as in his extraordinary installation Mining the Museum, for the Maryland Historical Society in 1992. Other times he creates gallery installations that imitate the look and sensibility of the museum. In the end, Wilson’s aesthetic commentaries reach across a wide historical expanse—from Egyptian and classical sculpture to African American memorabilia, “primitivism,” and the uniforms worn by the often black guards charged with the task of keeping American museums safe and secure. Organized by the Center for Art and Visual Culture, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the exhibition Fred Wilson: Objects and Installations, 1979-2000 consists of more than 100 objects, each configured to re-create sections of Wilson’s original installations. This catalog, the most comprehensive book published on the artist’s work to date, includes essays by exhibition curator Maurice Berger and Jennifer González, an interview with Wilson by Berger, and an annotated list of projects by the artist, as well as numerous color and black-and-white photographs.