Transcript

ABRAM JACKSON: “An Archaeology of Silence”. Kehinde Wiley gave this title both to this monumental sculpture – and to the exhibition itself. There’s so much to think about here. Find space nearby where you’ll be comfortable for a few minutes, while we hear from the artist and Hodari Davis.

KEHINDE WILEY: The point is to use the language of the monumental to say that we are in deep crisis. You, the viewer, have to come to terms with regards to how we see the Black body. Here, it's devoid of life, yet the horse is still rearing, it's still moving.

HODARI DAVIS: It's almost like, which represents you? Are you this horse of Empire that we've seen so many times, marching over so many cities, all over the world? Or this body on the back of this horse? So many of us have been educated to see the horse. To pledge allegiance to that horse, to be proud of the accomplishments of that horse. And to actually not see this body on the back of that, actually not see it at all.

ABRAM JACKSON: The statues of Civil War generals on horseback in Richmond, Virginia, have been taken down, following protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. But Wiley’s experience of them a few years earlier, caused him to think deeply about artworks that can hold so much power.

KEHINDE WILEY: They were produced oftentimes in the 1920s, 1930s, as a means of terrorizing the Black population of the South. I wanted to recreate that language - I wanted to breathe it in, and to exhale something differently.

Archeology is the act of pulling the past into the present. And I think that so much of what happened in the aftermath of the brutal murder of George Floyd has to do with us recognizing his humanity, the humanity of so many of us who happen to look like him, generations of people who've suffered under chattel slavery, and the presence of Empire.

Is it all about destruction? – No. It's certainly about human capacity to heal and to rebuild. It's about a resilience that has been our saving point for generations. My work is about creating strategies of shining. Strategies of mining terrible histories, and creating new fields of providence.

HODARI DAVIS: So, what happens when people encounter this? I know that art can make hard conversations really easy and easy conversations really difficult. That's art, right? Just it being presented to the world changes what we think about, changes how we think, changes the conversations that we would have, or wouldn't be having, if we weren't so provoked. That's the power of art.

ABRAM JACKSON: This is the last room in the exhibition, and the end of the audio tour. But it’s by no means the end of the conversation.

There are several additional resources to help make sense of this powerful exhibition, including a critical reflection space in the Piazzoni Murals Room. It’s downstairs on the first floor, right outside of Wilsey Court. There is also a short film about Kehinde Wiley’s journey and artistic process that can be accessed on the exhibition webpage.

We would like to thank all of our interviewees: the Reverend Wanda Johnson of the Oscar Grant Foundation, Hodari Davis of Edutainment for Equity, Curator Claudia Schmuckli, and the of course, the artist himself.

The audio tour is underwritten by Google.org, enabling all visitors to access it for free.

The audio tour was narrated by me, Abram Jackson. It was written and produced by Frances Homan Jue and sound design is by Dennis Hysom. Thank you for listening.

Image: Kehinde Wiley, “An Archeology of Silence” (detail), 2021. Bronze, Overall, approximate: 161 7/16 x 59 1/16 x 200 13/16 in., 2 Ton 1,363.79 lb. (410 x 150 x 510 cm, 2,433 kg), Footprint: 48 13/16 x 135 7/16 in. (124 x 344 cm), Base: 11 13/16 x 88 3/16 x 174 13/16 in. (30 x 224 x 444 cm), Horse body: 1 Ton 339.08 lb. (1,061 kg), Horse legs: 1 Ton 120.83 lb. (962 kg), Figure: 903.89 lb. (410 kg). © Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of Galerie Templon, Paris. Photo: Ugo Carmeni