Linsen Chai

Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina features for the first time more than sixty works addressing the production of pottery by enslaved workers of the American South in the late nineteenth century. Central to the exhibition, twelve large jars of the enslaved potter David Drake, are brought together in the sunlit gallery of the Lehman Wing. These large vessels bear his signature, date, as well as striking prose, testament to daily life. Three of these can be seen backed by the large title wall from across the sunken courtyard in dialogue with the simultaneous exhibition Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast.

The exhibition organizes itself then within a gallery with Old Edgefield and contextual pieces on the left side, poignant face-vessels centering the space, whilst dialoguing with contemporary pieces on the right hand side. Embedded within the Lehman Collection, distinct colours and visual presence were opted so to highlight this special display. A careful choice of blues and angled details evoked the process of excavation, unearthing, that the show physically and metaphorically undertakes.

It has since travelled to the MFA Boston, the University of Michigan Museum of Fine Arts, and will conclude its journey at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.