| |
From
UCSF Magazine, April 1999
The King of Context - Fred Wilson
The word "artist" is one of the most expansive in the English language. Yet when
it is used to describe Fred Wilson, all the word's many shadings do not seem adequate to
the task. Does he create things? Yes, but they are not always things you can touch. Does
he design things? Yes, but not in the way most people would imagine. Does he somehow
advance or refine our sense of aesthetics? Most definitely. But he does so by challenging
their very objectivity.
 So who is this man some have called everything from a symbolic analyst to a
visionary for the voiceless? And what is his connection to UCSF? The second question is
the easier one to answer. Fred Wilson, a 45-year-old "conceptual artist" from
New York, has been selected by the Chancellor's Subcommittee on the Diversity Art Project
to create a public art project (financed by private donations) that celebrates all UCSF
diversity. Wilson was chosen from more than 50 artists who responded to the committee's
inquiry, which outlined their desire to somehow symbolize and synthesize one of UCSF's
most defining characteristics.
Apart from his stellar reputation, what most captivated the committee, co-chaired by
Daniel Lowenstein, associate professor of neurology, and Karen Attix, recently retired
director of Arts & Performances, was Wilson's unwillingness to describe precisely what
he would create. Any remaining doubts about such a fluid course were dispelled in
subsequent conversations. "I react to places and spaces, to the people I meet and the
conversations I have," Wilson explains. "How could I have planned a project
before I really knew anything about UCSF?"
Knowing, in the deepest and most profound sense, is the key to Wilson's work. A sculptor
by training, a global citizen by inclination and experience, and a self-described
"sponge" when it comes to stimuli of all sorts, Wilson has developed a keen and
edgy eye for the hidden point of view. Museums, with their formalist and decorative
displays devoid of cultural context, offered Wilson the first opportunity to alter
symbols, change their hidden messages and by so doing, confront audience assumptions. His
installation at the Maryland Historical Society, entitled "Mining the Museum,"
brought national acclaim and the American Museum Association's 1993 award for Best
Exhibition of the Year.
The exhibit was rich with the unexpected, from cigar store Indians turning their backs on
viewers and reward posters for runaway slaves to a whipping post surrounded by period
chairs of different styles and slave shackles set amid ornate silver serving vessels. Many
of the objects had been stored for decades and never displayed, let alone allowed to shine
or shatter any illusions. Others were moved around and mixed in a sly or provocative
fashion. All were used to restore context and create a new chemistry between the objects,
their display and the viewer.
In the years since, such combinations have become Wilson's artistic signature at museums
around the country, including San Francisco's De Young Museum, where his current
exhibition turns the tables on museum display by displaying American and European art as
if it were representative of foreign cultures. At the same time, he has worked to create
an environment for the review and veneration of objects created by indigenous people.
The UCSF commission, the first-ever commissioned art project in the University's history,
is different. UCSF is a multisite campus with few, if any, referential symbols, an
unappreciated and generally unknown history, and a complicated context that operates on
many different levels: local and national, state and federal, neighborhood and
international, private and public, to name a few. How do you depict such an institution's
diversity? What does diversity mean? Does it include biodiversity as well as cultural
forms? And how do these different definitions connect or overlap?
Wilson is unfazed by the dilemma. "I am looking for a metaphysical premise than can
become visualized." And how does he plan to discover this premise? "By talking
to as many different people at UCSF as I can, by reading as much as I can, by using my
status as an outsider to see connections that might not be obvious to others."
Wilson has used the same interview approach to uncover opinions, attitudes and assumptions
that ultimately influenced his many museum installations. At UCSF, however, they will
shape the very project itself. "My studio is in my head," Wilson says. "I
can't close the door, which is why I am always taking notes and asking questions as I
go."
Because such conversations and observations are so critical to the formative process,
Wilson plans a busy schedule of both during the first quarter of 1999. He also has agreed
to give slide lectures about his work "as often as people want." To further the
exchange of ideas, a website and email address have been created as well. Later this
spring Wilson will make his proposal to the Diversity Subcommittee. Completion of the
project is scheduled for the end of the year.
"I don't like people to make assumptions about me, which is why I am not making any
about this project," says Wilson. Still, while conceding that he is very interested
in uncovering the spirit and soul of UCSF's many multicultural communities, he is also
extending an invitation to individuals. "All the people of UCSF need to help me
understand them and this institution. That is the only way I can create something that
will speak far longer than this moment."
Links:
Fred Wilson website
Chancellor's Committee on Diversity
Source: Jeff Miller
Daybreak Arts&Letters
|
