We very much enjoyed a tour of an exhibit entitled “Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory” at Cooper Gallery last week. The tour was led by Dell Hamilton, Acting Director of the Cooper Gallery for African and African American Art at Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Thank you, Dell, for sharing your passion and incredible knowledge about each one of the works and artists presented in this exhibit.
“Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory presents contemporary art inspired by historical memory. It considers in comparative perspectives the historic and contemporary role photography and film have played in remembering legacies of slavery and its aftermath. It also examines the social lives of a diverse group of Americans within various places—on the land, at home, in photographic albums, at historic sites, and in public memory.
This exhibition acknowledges artists’ ongoing efforts to explore the possibilities of freedom and their relationship to it. Their subject matter depicts the persistent quest to be “as free as they want to be” as well as their persistent drive to innovate aesthetic practices in photographic media. Social and economic histories as well as experiences of race, class, gender and sexuality affect the construction, acquisition and maintenance of archives and their ability to influence knowledge production.” – from the gallery website