Hear Me Now: The Black Potters Of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, features nearly sixty ceramic objects created by enslaved African Americans in Edgefield, South Carolina, in the decades before the Civil War. Considered through the lens of current scholarship in the fields of history, literature, anthropology, material culture, diaspora, and African American studies, these nineteenth-century vessels testify to the lived experiences, artistic agency, and material knowledge of those who created them.
The works include monumental storage jars by literate potter and poet Dave (later recorded as David Drake, ca. 1801–1870s) and rare examples of utilitarian wares and face vessels by unrecorded makers, including a ca. 1840 water cooler jug from the High’s collection. Hear Me Now will also link the past to the present with work by leading contemporary Black artists who have responded to or whose practice connects with the Edgefield story, including Theaster Gates, Simone Leigh, Robert Pruitt, and Woody De Othello. This exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Co- Curated by Adrienne Spinozzi, Jason R. Young, and Ethan Lesser. The exhibiting venues include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, University of Michigan Museum of Art, and The High Museum, Atlanta. Click here for more information
