Fred Wilson -Viewing the Invisible .
Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University

In Australia Fred Wilson (a New York based Installation artist) uncovered more colonial, hidden, histories then the average Australian would care to know. For Wilson this minefield was littered with fuel to feed a project that followed a long line of investigation into the representation of historically exploited cultures in Western museums, all he had to do was pick up the rubbish - white trash.

Wilson's work deals primarily with objects and the re contextualisation of museum objects in particular. He works in a similar vein to artists like fellow New York artist Barbara Bloom who re invents aspects of the museum, similarly Louise Lawler and Hans Haake work with museum intervention. Duchamps mile of string as early as 1942 explored museum intervention and Marcel boodthalers imaginary museum between 1968 and 1972 posed to question the structures of institutional powers to enforce or promote their version of history, as Marcel Broodthaers puts it:

To talk about my museum means discussing the ways and means of analysing fraud.. The ordinary museum and its representatives simply present one form of truth. To talk about this museum means speaking about the conditions of truth.

- it may not look like art, in the general public sense, but it certainly is not new.

In Wilsons work objects are rearranged to the degree where their original meaning is reviewed in context to other objects. The relationship between the juxta positioning of objects is integral to the way he works. Ultimately the objects he chooses and what those objects represent becomes the issue and the question is; the museums role in attempting to represent non western cultures? Wilson states that;

My focus is on meaning and perception: visual, cultural, social, etc... By using a familiar mode of visual and spatial communication - the exhibition - and by inhabiting the role of the curator, an awareness of meaning and of heightened perception can be achieved through subtle manipulations, to great effect.

Wilson has worked directly with museums in an advisory role helping establish a more just representation of these cultures.

Wilson's residency, unlike previous artists in residence, was a project that consisted mainly of research and collating material, often scarce material and negotiating loans from other institutions. Normally he would work only with the one institution but on this occasion he chose to borrow work from three regional Galleries; Bendigo , Geelong and Ballarat. This led to a little more bureaucracy yet meant he was forced to travel through areas from which much of the work was derived, or at least historically relevant, gaining a sense of familiarity.

The exhibition Viewing the Invisible was divided in to three parts, the Colonial room, the Greeting gallery and the Secret/sacred door.

The Colonial room displayed a series of paintings on loan from the various regional galleries depicting mainly landscapes romantically painted.

Infra red analysis, as used in art conservation (hidden behind the secret sacred door) was for Wilson, as Rachel Kent puts it in her catalogue essay "a potent metaphor for the ‘peeling back’ of the pictorial surface to reveal these hidden or untold histories". With this form of analysis in mind a series of small, digital reproduction panels were placed alongside the original paintings. These panels read like labels and yet the information was visual appearing as though revealed under infra red light, the first of the pictures; William Strutts Bushrangers 18-was the only actual infra red image and is undergoing current investigation for research purposes, the rest were fictitious.

Nineteenth century drawings from State Library collections depicting not so favourable settlement scenes such as; Aboriginal people being shot by soldiers on horse back - were digitally superimposed upon images of the paintings. According to Wilson he wanted to:"look behind the image and see beyond it." The panels posed as infared, presented the viewer with 'possible' histories, not given truths. Separately the images represent, or document, one form of historical truth, united they suggest underlying truths, that might be found beneath the surface, fictitious yet still possible. As mentioned earlier with Marcel Broodthaers, to analyse fraud might bring us closer to understanding the 'conditions of truth'.

A display case housing infra red equipment used by conservation staff at The Potter Museum - was also placed in the Colonial Gallery. This offered the viewer a first hand look at a piece of equipment not often displayed, particularly not as art. Presented in museum style attire, it also acted as a declaration of truth or actuality. It led the viewer to the process behind the miraculous invention of revealing information beneath the paint surface. Wilson took the veil off the machine that unveils.

This room, the Colonial Gallery, offers the viewer a glimpse into hidden histories, which is what I see as the crux of this exhibition; hidden, clandestine, disguised, veiled surreptitiously, towards Viewing the Invisible . Aspects of authorship are not an issue here, nothing he works with he owns. It is public property run by the laws that govern the institution via the state or who ever funded the place. The issue, hence, is the definition of public property and the potential new relationships built from restructuring our ways of thinking.

Unlike the Greeting gallery which offered objects to be read as objects the colonial room informs us of representations, by doing so it is an acknowledgment of miss representations

Fred's Installation was an attempt to push the constraints that define Museums, via questioning the categorical framework inherited from imperialism and the enlightenment.

The enlightenment led to a new self confidence or self importance in European ideas. During this time the need to spread such civilisation ideas to less favoured peoples throughout the world, was seen as a important objective. It was these ideas that were to shape the western world as we know it relating to science, (rational and anti superstition). Also during this time the state was seen as a proper vehicle for improvement of the human condition - hence became the Museums role within such a context.

Biological investigations, such as the collection and collating of unknown species of plants was a important part of European exploration, people like Joseph Banks, for example: It was because of his wealth that Banks could afford to put S,1.0,000 towards financing Cook's trip, and because, of his ancestry that he could view the lands. through which he passed as ripe for exploitation.

This is the platform from which Wilson can juggle meaning and re invent a museum that tells another story or unveils the other side of the coin, a parallel history editing in the purist sense of the word.

Wilson claims that: "the historical references, the various themes, are created to support my general lifelong project, which is about shifting one's understanding of something to allow for a larger or different reading, which may tell you something about yourself and your own beliefs and feelings."

The fact that Wilsons' work critiques colonial and imperial exploitations re-presented within the museum context, places the work in a historical arena fraught with contradictions and political paradox. As viewers we have to come to terms with, not only the complex and highly charged political nature of the subject matter, but also with the way in which we evaluate such historical information. It is in our vested interest to recognise the potential for more than one reading of history, as we move into the next millennium, so as we might better represent ourselves.

Contemporary art today in this postmodern age of pluralism, supposedly leaves doors open for all voices. The willingness to listen to these voices always seems dictated by a combination of external factors, whether it be political, (politically correct and incorrect seem both unfavourable these days particularly in Australia); sociological; or philosophical. There seems to be very little room for a political acceptance of historical responsibility.

It is much easier to open a new door without critically dismantling the old door. The acceptance of new ways of understanding is easy so long as it does not infringe upon personal understanding, Museums keep "different" cultures at a safe distance while the objects become viewed as exotic types of jewellery. When attitudes relating to race are so deeply entrenched it is easy to dismiss any form of discourse or/and disclosure relating to why society is the way it is and how history has shaped societies way of thinking, history swept under the carpet, the too hard basket, Australians have been doing it for years.

Sean Loughrey, 1998

Digital images created for the idea of infrared revealing hidden meanings were made with the assistance of myself insofar as we took Strutt's Bushrangers as a template for invented depictions.

Images