E Pluribus Unum (Fred Wilson)
Fred Wilson, a world-renowned New York-based artist, has been identified as an artist for a future public art installation on the Cultural Trail.
Fred Wilson’s artistic genius lies in seeing art hiding in plain sight, then juxtaposing it with existing artworks and cultural environments to reveal how context often controls perspectives and meaning, intentionally or not. It is a practice Wilson calls “mining,” one that includes excavation of artifacts – and the ideas and perspectives they represent – with a goal of “making them mine.” But Wilson isn’t just “mining” for himself: An African-American, his artwork begs questions long overdue, starts sometimes difficult conversations and creates a new context representing a fuller and more meaningful perspective. Wilson has earned critical acclaim by applying this practice to museums throughout the United States. E Pluribus Unum, a commission awarded to Wilson by the Arts Council of Indianapolis on behalf of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, is his first project mining monuments and memorials. Few cities offer richer possibilities than Indianapolis.
The collection of monuments and memorials in Indianapolis is second in the country only to Washington, DC. And one, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, is the figurative heart of the city. Yet through separate visits to the city, Wilson noted that only a single, unnamed person of color is depicted in the city’s many monuments. Given Indianapolis’ complex history of race relations, Wilson saw an opportunity through E Pluribus Unum to raise important questions and then help answer them by reanimating the anonymous black figure.
While already an accomplished artist, Wilson's watershed project entitled "Mining the Museum: An Installation by Fred Wilson" mounted at The Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore in 1992-1993 catapulted him and his work into the consciousness of a much broader audience. In 1993 he produced a project at our own Indianapolis Museum of Art entitled The Spiral of Art History. Wilson's creations have been included in numerous other solo and group exhibitions around the globe, including his selection to represent the United States in 2003 at the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. He has received several significant awards and professional recognitions including the prestigious Genius award from the MacArthur Foundation (1999).
For more information on Fred Wilson, visit:
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/wilson/index.html
http://renabranstengallery.com/WilsonF.html
http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/features/n_9014/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n10_v81/ai_14603011
http://www.crownpoint.com/artists/wilson/about.html
Fred Wilson-Resume.pdf 454.02 KB
Fred Wilson-Press Clippings.pdf 1.61 MB
Please contact the Arts Council of Indianapolis with questions or for more information: 317.631.3301 or publicart@indyarts.org.
