2019 Winner: Our World in Wilson's Hands

Project Information
Our World in Wilson's Hands
Arts
HAVC 100A (Approaches to Visual Studies)
The work, "Atlas," 1995, by Fred Wilson, depicts a racist “happy black servant” figurine holding a globe configured as a symbol of the African diaspora by using push-pins and flags to mark major populations of people of African descent around the world. Through an analysis of visual elements and historical socio-political contexts expressed in "Atlas," I will investigate how Wilson works with theoretical concepts involving race and colonization. I argue that “Atlas” discusses specific theories explained by Frantz Fanon concerning the construction of narratives by colonial powers, the violence projected from slavery onto the present, and the ultimate struggle by the colonized to liberation. I support my argument by referring to Fanon’s “The Fact of Blackness” and “On National Culture,” in relation to elements of the work like symbolic placement and inclusion of historical objects, and by putting "Altas" in conversation with Wilson’s Entrance to the U.S Pavilion from the 2003 Venice Biennale featuring two large African slaves transferred from a tomb to hold Neoclassical architecture labeled with “STATI UNITI D”AMERICA” (“United States of America”).
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Students
  • Samwell Tarciano Gervacio (Cowell)
Mentors