"Black Ocean" exhibition: Applique narratives by William Wilson

05 Apr 2010    

From April 5 through 30, 2010, the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery in the Department of Textiles, Clothing & Design at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will host the exhibition “The Black Ocean: Europe - Africa - America” featuring appliquéd banner narratives documenting the complicated history of the infamous “triangle trade,” created by French artist William Wilson. The Paris-based multi-media artist will be on campus from April 7 through 15, and will present a free public talk in the Human Sciences Building, room 11, on Sunday, April 11 at 2:00 p.m., preceding a gallery reception in his honor. All members of the UNL and Nebraska communities are invited.

"The Black Ocean: Europe-Africa-America" is Wilson's homage to his ancestors and his reflection on humanity and its capacity for both great achievement and nobility, and the basest horror and depravity. A painter, printmaker, sculptor, author and illustrator, Wilson recently journeyed to West Africa where, over a period of nearly two years, he worked with artisans in Abomey, Benin to create a series of eighteen appliqué fabric panels interpreting the historical narratives of the peoples of West Africa and of the traffic in human cargo that crossed oceans and generations. These powerful textiles bear witness to the richness of African culture and symbolism and the complex histories that interweave in reconstructing the African diaspora.