WCMA

Williams College Museum of Art Presents
Unchained Legacies
January 26–June 29, 2008
Press release

This exhibition highlights two new contemporary art acquisitions by the museum: Stowage (1997) by Willie Cole and Absolut Power (2003) by Hank Willis Thomas. Both works visually reference the Brookes slave ship diagram (1808)—evidence of the organization of human cargo during transport from Africa, or what has become known as the “Middle Passage.” The exhibition, a collaboration with the Chapin Rare Book Library (Williams College), provides a historical context for the contemporary use of this much reproduced image.

Hank Willis Thomas (American, b. 1976)
Absolut Power (from the series "Branded"), 2003
photograph, Duratrans, Plexiglas, light box
Museum purchase, Kathryn Hurd Fund
M.2007.5

Willie Cole (American, b. 1955)
Stowage, 1997
woodcut on paper
Alexander and Bonin Publishing, Inc., New
York (Printer: Derrière L'Étolie Studios, New York)
Museum purchase, Kathryn Hurd Fund
M.2006.19
Photo: D. James Dee, New York
Courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York