Mining the Museum: An Installation

by Fred Wilson

While it has become increasingly commonplace to speak of how history books omit the stories of people of color, rarely is the discussion broad enough to examine how these same omissions are replicated in institutions outside the academy. One such institution is the museum, particularly the history museum, which, much like a history book, is popularly perceived as a repository of truth. But as Mining the Museum, a book based on the award-winning collaboration between The Contemporary, The Maryland Historical Society, and installation artist Fred Wilson illustrates, museums are not neutral places.

Genres: Academic, Art, Museology

148 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1994

Reviews

[Izetta Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!

Fred Wilson's Mining the Museum is a seminal text about museums, the objects they hold, and the history they either hide or elucidate. Wilson selects pieces from the Maryland Historical Society and re-frames them to elicit fuller meanings. He discovers pieces in the Historical Society's collection that have gone previously unused. For instance, he centers a 19th Century wooden whipping post among a set of ornate dining room chairs. He places quotes about duck hunting season among quotes about how to best "recover" an esaped person, and juxtaposes both with a hunting rifle.

Wilson pushes each boundary of what a museum should be and how its pieces should be used. His installation raises profound questions about everday objects and their connection to oppression.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had seen this installation. Wilson's work in the museum field is enlighhtening. Recontextualizing and juxtaposing of a collection so old and rich in "old history" gave new meaning and a new audience to the objects of the Maryland historical Society. The book starts with a great array of photographs and documentation of the installation. It follows with a thorough listing of events in the art world which analyzed and /or criticized the culture of museums in America - all of which combine to make this a burgeoning medium in the fine arts world. A wonderful description and explanation of the complex strings attaching the newly situated objects follows.