By Janice K. Neal-Vincent, Ph.D,
Contributing Writer,
Guest Curator
Heads turned and voices rose when over 600 works of art were submitted to guest curator Danielle Burns-Wilson for the Mississippi Museum of Art’s 2021 Invitational Exhibition. She engaged in a panel conversation among this year’s Jane Crater Hiatt Artist Fellows: Coulter Fussell, Lawson King and Brenden Davis on Saturday, August 14, during an hour-long 10 a.m. Zoom session. These Mississippians discussed three major themes (resilience, reckoning and reflection) that Burns-Wilson discovered among their works.
“To be invited to serve as guest curator for the Mississippi Museum of Art’s 2021 Invitational is already an honor, but to do so against the backdrop of all that is happening around us is even more meaningful,” said Burns-Wilson.
The guest curator asserted that because of the “entropic state” of the world, now in a moment of seemingly no return, “I wanted the works in this year’s Invitational to reflect the many voices and experiences of this particular moment. I selected works that create a balance – through materials, media and processes, as well as perspectives. This exhibition conveys human needs, reimagines our future and liberates thought.”
During the conversation, Burns-Wilson recalled being home with her spouse and four-year-old son. “It was such a refreshing process to go through.” Then she noted the emergence of themes: resilience (a lot of reference to children); reckoning (dealing with social injustice and brutality) and reflection (loss of time and loss of loved ones).
Burns-Wilson explained that when it comes to resilience, a lot can be learned from Lawson’s art.
“I started teaching kids in their freedom, their individuality and their lack of learning protocols in certain situations. When I think about the hand [and the balloon] in the room, I think about healing and letting go. So the room represents an idea or a goal. It’s kind of like being okay with that moment of not knowing and moving forward,” responded Davis.
Of King’s work “I Can Hardly See,” Burns-Wilson denoted a conveyance of power and strength.
King responded that his aim was to depict perseverance. “When 2020 came around, it made me look within myself – isolated, stuck…experiencing stereotypes that [I] can do nothing about.”
Shifting the conversation to the last theme, reflection, Burns-Wilson commented that Fussell’s painting, “Home,” reminded her of the day her grandmother became a widow.
“Things are out of control. I used curtains, bed sheets and t-shirts, whatever anybody wants to leave me,” said Fussell.
Fussell contended that she makes quilts from the fabric. Suit cases are on one side and everything a person needs to make a room in the home is on the other side. “If you’ve got to go, you can pack your home up and take it with you to the next place…So I create a human experience.”
Burns-Wilson injected, “You felt initially that you couldn’t use much, but then you learned the value of the donated materials.”
According to Fussell, “I learned that I could use most anything that came to me.”
Fellows responded to a chat question: “What do you need more to create your works?” They concurred that Mississippi should have more shows, more people in attendance, more spaces, more connections and more funds.
MMA Director Betsy Bradley said of the artists, “In the face of all that is contrary, they summon the courage and strength to make something that speaks their truth to other people. The 2021 Mississippi Invitational demonstrates that the power to make something beautiful, to survive, to connect with ideas and with others, can be stronger than the temptation to withdraw.”
Artistic Director of CAPE Ryan Dennis served as moderator.
The Invitational is supported by Jane Hiatt/The Hiatt Fund at the Community Foundation for Mississippi.
For further information contact Jana Brady, Mississippi Museum of Art at 601-651-3822.
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