In the summer of 2016, Chicago-based artist Folayemi Wilson unveiled Eliza’s Peculiar Cabinet of Curiosities on the grounds of the Lynden Sculpture Garden. The full-scale structure is both wunderkammer and slave cabin; it imagines what a 19th-century woman of African descent might have collected, catalogued and stowed in her living quarters. What did she find curious about the objects and culture of her European captors? Southern plantation life? The natural world around her? Informed by historical research, but represented in the past, present and future simultaneously, Eliza–animated by an Afro-Futurist vision that embodies a hopeful version of an African American future–presents an imagined collection of found and original objects, furnishings and artifacts.
Below, take a virtual tour of Eliza’s Peculiar Cabinet of Curiosities created in 2016 by teacher-in-residence Sue Pezanoski Browne for the education and field trip programs of Lynden Sculpture Garden, in conjunction with Anna Grosch and Claudia Orjuela. And as a special bonus, enjoy the mini-tour of P.S. I Love You, Wilson’s 2016 exhibition of modified postcards.
- For Families: Deconstructed Postcards & Cabinet of Curiosities, two Art Drop-In activities inspired by Foyalemi’s work at Lynden