{"id":21569,"date":"2022-05-09T22:02:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T02:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=21569"},"modified":"2022-05-09T22:03:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T02:03:24","slug":"roberto-visani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2022\/05\/09\/roberto-visani\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking Abolitionist Icons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brooklyn artist Roberto Visani reimagines famous abolitionist artworks in his exhibition \u201cForm\/Reform\u201d at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center<\/a> in Vermont from March 12 to June 12, 2022.<\/p>\n

The exhibition features his \u201ccardboard slave kits,\u201d build-it-yourself cardboard kits that recreate icons of movements in the 18th and 19th centuries to liberate people from slavery in the United States and British territories, as well as 20th century anti-colonial movements.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy making a kit, I am inviting people to confront the legacy of slavery in a different way than simply being consumers of its history,\u201d Visani said in an August 2021 for British Art Studies<\/a>. \u201cI want to democratize that experience, so it\u2019s not just about the history of the enslaved and enslaver, or the artist and the collector, but also about everyone in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original artworks have a complex legacy. They began their lives as powerful and pursuasive statements in the movements to free enslaved Americans, but subsequently they have often been criticized as patronizing, embodying the racism that even White abolitionists harbored, and perpetuating derogatory images of Black people as enslaved.<\/p>\n

\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani’s exhibition \u201cForm\/Reform\u201d at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in Vermont, March 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, abolitionist blend,” 2020, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, abolitionist blend,” 2020, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspired by Josiah Wedgwood\u2019s 1787 medallion<\/a>, an icon of the British and later American abolitionist movements, which depicts a kneeling enslaved man, his hands and feet chained, with the famous motto: \u201cAm I Not a Man and a Brother?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, h powers blend,” 2021, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, h powers blend,” 2021, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Based on Hiram Powers\u2019s 1846 marble \u201cThe Greek Slave\u201d<\/a> depicting an apparently White Greek woman, nude and handcuffed.<\/p>\n

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\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, liberty blend,” 2022, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, liberty blend,” 2022, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Eastman<\/a>
Eastman Johnson\u2019s 1862 painting \u201cA Ride for Liberty\u2014The Fugitive Slaves.” (Courtesy Brooklyn Museum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspired by Eastman Johnson\u2019s 1862 painting \u201cA Ride for Liberty\u2014The Fugitive Slaves,\u201d<\/a> which depicts an enslaved family depicting an enslaved family on horseback fleeing to the American lines during the U.S. Civil War. \u201cJohnson claimed to have based the painting on an actual event he witnessed near the Manassas, Virginia, battlefield on March 2, 1862, just days before the Confederate stronghold was ceded to Union forces,\u201d writes the Brooklyn Museum, which owns the original painting.<\/p>\n

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\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, freedman blend,” 2021, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspired by John Quincy Adams Ward\u2019s 1863 statue \u201cThe Freedman,\u201d<\/a> a response to President Abraham Lincoln\u2019s 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, depicts a Black man in just a loincloth whose handcuffs have been broken.<\/p>\n

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\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, carpeaux blend,” 2021, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Based on Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux\u2019s 1873 statue \u201cWhy Born Enslaved!,\u201d<\/a> which he first modeled in 1868. It\u2019s a bust of a Black woman, bound by ropes, with her breasts falling out of her dress.<\/p>\n

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\"Roberto<\/a>
Roberto Visani, “cardboard slave kit, bussa blend,” 2021, cardboard, hot glue. (Courtesy Brattleboro Museum & Art Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspired by Karl Broodhagen\u2019s 1985 \u201cEmancipation Statue\u201d<\/a> in Barbados, which evokes the leader of an 1816 slave revolt as well as the island nation\u2019s independence from Great Britain in 1966.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brooklyn artist Roberto Visani reimagines famous abolitionist artworks in his exhibition \u201cForm\/Reform\u201d at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in Vermont from March 12 to June 12, 2022. The exhibition features his \u201ccardboard slave kits,\u201d build-it-yourself cardboard kits that recreate icons of movements in the 18th and 19th centuries to liberate people from slavery in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[976,977,413],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21569"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21648,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569\/revisions\/21648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}