Historical Research
From CT4CT: Creative Tools for Critical Times
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A number of contemporary artists utilize historical research methods, including oral history and archival research, to conceptualize and develop their work. Increasingly, artists have come to see the archive as an important site where historical knowledge and cultural memory are stored, contested and (re)created.
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Artistic Projects
Abu Ghraib Detainee Interview Project
Daniel Heyman's Abu Ghraib Detainee Interview Project is an exhibition that brought the stories of 17 victims of torture to light. Heyman was invited to accompany the special prosecutor for a legal team to Istanbul and Amman, Jordan. The lawyers were initiating a class-action suit on behalf of a group of Abu Ghraib victims who had been released without charges.
Heyman listened, through an interpreter, while the people gave their testimonies. He drew their portraits first on paper and then on copper plates with a stylus, inscribing parts of their stories directly on the plates in reverse lettering. The words weave around the faces as if the individuals are bursting through the text and confronting us directly. When Heyman ran out of copper plates, he made watercolor portraits on paper, hand lettering the testimonies like graffiti on a prison wall.
See also:
- YouTube: Abu Ghraib Detainee Interview Project (Part 1)
- YouTube: Abu Ghraib Detainee Interview Project (Part 2)
Entering Buttermilk Bottom
REPOhistory's Entering Buttermilk Bottom (1995) is a site-specific public art installation that honored the history and former residents of Atlanta using street signs and markings.
According to REPOhistory:
This project honors the passing of a community destroyed by Urban Renewal to make room for Modern Atlanta and the "New South." This site-specific public art installation consisted of signs, street markings, and a pavilion installation that illustrated the history of the community, as well as a reunion of former residents. The historical information was donated to the Martin Luther King Library and the reunion has become an annual event.
See also:
Lower Manhattan Sign Project
REPOhistory's Lower Manhattan Sign Project was inspired by the celebrations surrounding the 500 year anniversary of Columbus' 1492 "discovery" of the Americas. The project used historic signs, walking tours and other events to present alternative views of history.
According to Lucy Lippard:
Amid the signage jungle of lower Manhattan, the metal plaques attached high on lampposts might first be taken as standard warnings from officialdom. But the imagery seems unlikely, a falling body, the photo of an open grave, portraits of a homeless man and a radical politician, a floating ladder and noose. And the texts just don't have that bureaucratic thud. On closer scrutiny of the information offered, mutiny is apparent. The lively array of pictorial signs are, of course, art. But rather than "review" the products (most of which work really well in context), I want to explore the process of this exemplary public art project.
The goal was to repossess history. "Whose History is Remembered? Who Will We Forget?" is the fundamental question asked by REPOhistory, a multiethnic collective of artists, writers. and educators whose Sign Project opened with panache and a parade in lower Manhattan in June 1992. The two-sided. 18 x 24, three-color photo silkscreen historical markers, 39 of them in all. are clustered between Canal Street and the Battery, mostly south of City Hall Park. Although their projected life span is one year (through June 1993), some may last longer. It's kind of a miracle that they are there at all.
The project was conceived by alumni of PAD/D (Political Art Documentation/Distribution), the activist art group (and Archive. now at the Museum of Modern Art) that almost survived the 1980's, and other experienced activist artists. First called The History Project, it began as a study groyp and developed by the fall of 1989 into a proposal (offered by REPOhistorian Greg Sholette) to "retrieve and relocate absent historical narratives at specific locations in the New York City area through counter-monuments, actions and events." Because many of the members were working already to counteract the official Columbus Quincentennial events, it was suggested at early meetings that the theme of colonialism/racism be adopted and the signs be scattered throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, so that people could deal with their own neighborhoods and local education. One ambitious idea was to map the entire city and catalogue the historical sites in order to determine an overriding theme. Finally the group decided to focus for the time being on the lost history of lower Manhattan, where it all began, and where most events could be categorized as colonialism and racism.
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Mining The Museum
In 2003 Fred Wilson was invited to transform the Maryland Historical Society's museum in Baltimore. Making use of the artwork at hand, Wilson acted as a curator illuminating the latent institutional racism existing within today's museums through manipulating the order and arrangement of the art. He strategically juxtaposed specific artifacts next to one another to challenge peoples perceptions of the artifacts' meaning. He previously had completed similar works creating "mock museums" during the 1980's which highlighted museums reinforcement of racist behaviors. Wilson also worked as a free lance museum educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Crafts Museum as well as the Natural History Museum.
According to Judith E. Stein:
Given the run of the venerable museum, Wilson acted as an artist/curator, using the collection's historical artifacts as his raw materials. His purpose was to raise our awareness of institutionalized racism, making visible the subtle and insidious ways these attitudes affect the decisions museums make about what to collect and how to display it...By titling his installation "Mining the Museum," the artist sowed a three-way pun: excavating the collections to extract the covert presence of racial minorities; planting emotionally explosive historical material to raise consciousness and effect institutional change; and, finding reflections of himself within the museum.
See Also
Out From Under the King George Hotel
REPOhistory's Out From Under the King George Hotel (2000) is a public art project that documents the history of an abandoned hotel in Houston, TX.
According to REPOhistory:
REPOhistory was invited to Houston, Texas, to create a public art project. We chose to document seven layers of history on the location of the King George Hotel. We chose this site because the abandoned Hotel was across the street from a homeless shelter and one block from the site of a new baseball stadium that was the cornerstone of the cityÕs plan to redevelop the downtown. We created a printed document that was distributed throughout the city. The document was also wheat pasted to the facade of the hotel with the permission of the Non-Profit Housing Corporation of Greater Houston, an organization that was renovating the structure as a halfway house for homeless. The Housing Corporation used the document for fundraising and will permanently hang a framed copy of the document in the lobby of the renovated structure.
See also:
Platforms
Norene Leddy's Platforms (2006) is an integrated system of platform-style shoes, digital media and online services. They feature six-inch silver leather sandals embedded with a media player and LCD screen, GPS transmitter and an audible alarm.
Self-labeled by Leddy as a “social sculpture,” Platforms is a conceptual tribute to the Greek goddess of love, a practical object for contemporary sex workers, and a medium for public dialogue. The design for the shoes is based on historical research and interviews with contemporary sex workers. According to the Leddy, the shoes “combine the rich mythology of Aphrodite with the concerns of sex workers on the streets: safety, advertising/promotion, and community.”
As a means to increasing sex worker safety, each sandal is embedded with a loud electronic siren along with a GPS receiver and silent alarm that wirelessly relays the wearer’s location to sex workers’ rights groups and/or emergency services. To help sex workers promote and advertise their services, the shoes’ LCD screen displays a variety of customizable videos and graphics. A speaker in the back of the shoe plays audio tracks of environmental phenomena connected to Aphrodite—ocean sounds from her birthplace, waterfall tracks from the Baths of Aphrodite in Cyprus, etc. Lastly, the Platforms project includes an online component that provides sex workers with an email client, calendar, “problem client” blog, and chat rooms.
See also:
- The Ahprodite Project: Platforms
- Chelsea Art Galleries: The Aphrodite Project: Platforms
- YouTube: artfuture :: Norene Leddy - The Aphrodite Project
Voices of Renewal
REPOhistory's Voices of Renewal (2000) is an extension of their Entering Buttermilk Bottom project.
According to REPOhistory:
Voices Of Renewal" is the second phase of REPOhistory's public art/public history work in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward. Following on the heels of the 1995-96 "Entering Buttermilk Bottom" project, this Public Art Residency is a collaboration by REPO artist Tom Klem and residents of the Fourth Ward's Glen Iris neighborhood. Working directly with those who lived these histories, six artist-created public history markers were created and were installed permanently on the private property of those residents whose histories were unveiled and celebrated.
See also:
Key Terms and Concepts
- Oral History
Oral History can be defined as the recording, preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker. It often takes the form of eye-witness evidence about past events, but can include folklore, myths, songs and stories passed down over the years by word of mouth. While it is an invaluable way of preserving the knowledge and understanding of older people, it can also involve interviewing younger generations. More recently, the use of video recording techniques has expanded the realm of oral history beyond verbal forms of communication and into the realm of gesture.
