BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) will present “Historical Depictions of Slavery,” a free talk by art historian Renée Ater, on Thursday, April 21, at 7 p.m. via Zoom and Facebook Live.
The talk is presented in connection with “Roberto Visani: Form/Reform,” an exhibit of cardboard sculptures that reinterpret past portrayals of enslaved people. Register at brattleboromuseum.org.
To create the sculptures in his “cardboard slave kits” series, Visani begins by identifying a historical work of art in which enslaved individuals play an important role, influencing our understanding of the institution of slavery. For example, Visani's sculpture “liberty blend” is modeled on the circa 1862 painting A Ride for Liberty-The Fugitive Slaves by Eastman Johnson.
Visani uses 3D modeling software to create a high-resolution model based on the original artwork, then converts the model into a series of 2D diagrams that are printed on cardboard, laser-cut, and assembled.
“My sculptures explore a past/present/future technology and a past/present/future body-in particular, a Black body,” Visani wrote in a statement accompanying the exhibit. “I am interested in the transformation, translation, and transportation of this body through time and space.”
In her talk, Ater will discuss the works of art on which Visani's sculptures are based, as well as the larger context of depictions of slavery in art. Ater is the Provost Visiting Associate Professor in Africana Studies at Brown University. Her research and writing focus on the intersection of race, monument building, and public space.
She is working on a digital publication, “Memoryscapes of Slavery,” in collaboration with the Center for Digital Scholarship and the Digital Publications Initiative. She continues to expand the open-source Omeka project “Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past” (slaverymonuments.org).
Ater is the author of Keith Morrison and Remaking Race and History: The Sculpture of Meta Warrick Fuller. She holds a bachelor's in art history from Oberlin College, a master's in art history from the University of Maryland, and a doctorate in art history from the University of Maryland.
“Roberto Visani: Form/Reform” is on view at BMAC through Sunday, June 12. For more information and to register for Ater's talk, visit bit.ly/659-ater or call 802-257-0124.