Tomorrow, Wed. Nov. 13 the Gibbes Museum of Art‘s distinguished lecture series features Fred Wilson speaking at the Charleston Music Hall, starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $40, and $15 for students.
Wilson, an artist best known for using his art to comment on issues of racism and erasure, will discuss his work — past, present, and future — at this special talk. He’ll also be staying in Charleston to conduct research in the Gibbes’ archives; he’s working on his 2020 Gibbes exhibition, Afro Kismet, as well as a site-specific installation that he’s creating with Spoleto’s headlining opera, Omar, in mind.
In conjunction with Charleston’s 350th anniversary, the Gibbes and Spoleto Festival USA have partnered to further explore the life of Omar Ibn Said, an enslaved Muslim-African man who was brought to Charleston in 1807.
Said’s memoir, borrowed from the Library of Congress, will be on display, turned to the page where he mentions Charleston. During a phone interview, executive director of the Gibbes Angela Mack noted how, “unusual and rare it is to have this first-hand account.”
Wilson is well-known for working in a museum’s collection and seeing what old institutions still reside, forcing society to question our assumptions about history, culture, and race.
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