Detail of "Create to Free Yourselves." Photograph by Brad Simpson, 2023 National Museum of African Art,
(c) Georges Adéagbo; collection Smithsonian Institution
17 November 2023 - 1 April 2024
«Créez pour vous libérer: Abraham Lincoln et l'histoire de l'émancipation des esclaves en Amérique»
Solo exhibition at Smithsonian Museum of African Art, DC
We live in a time of sensory overload. Between the internet and even a walk down the street, there is more information than we can fully digest. And yet, each of us finds a way through it all. Exploring an installation by Georges Adéagbo is like following a map of the artist’s mind. The red, white, and blue woman’s swimsuit, wood carvings, album by Beninois singer-songwriter Nel Oliver, biography of the great emancipator Harriet Tubman . . . these are among the approximately 214 eclectic items Adéagbo has assembled and placed in dialogue with one another as he reflected on the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the unfinished journey toward emancipation within the United States. The artist combines slips of paper on which he has jotted down his thoughts with found objects, personal items, and commissioned paintings to prompt contemplation of what Lincoln means to him. In so doing, he invites each of us to consider what assumptions, associations, or materials we bring to our individual reflections of history and the imperfect humans we have deemed heroes within it.
"Create to Free Yourselves: Abraham Lincoln and the history of Freeing Slaves in America”
This complex installation was produced by President Lincoln's Cottage in Washington DC, where it was shown in January 2023. Then it was requested by Chesterwood, Stockbridge Massachusetts, the studio of Daniel Chester French who created the model for the famous Lincoln memorial on the mall in DC. Finally it came to the Smithsonian, where it is now in the museums collection.
Create to Free yourselves in Daniel Chester French's studio President Lincoln's cottage, first venue of "Create to free yourselves"