Prop Master at Charleston's Gibbes Museum of Art
Susan Harbage Page, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Juan Logan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Juan Logan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Overview:
The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina
presented the exhibition
Prop Master: An Installation in the museum's Main
Gallery
from April 3 through July 19, 2009. This site-specific, large-scale installation
created exclusively for the Gibbes drew materials from the museum's
permanent collection of portraits, landscape paintings, and archives,
begun over 150 years ago. This online presentation of Prop
Master (with original wall text by Dr. Laurel Frederickson)
reveals how artists Susan Harbage Page and Juan Logan juxtaposed
art objects drawn from the Gibbes' collection and decorative art objects
from local public and private collections with works of their own creation.
In doing so, they investigate the role of the institution of the museum
as both a prop master and a prop with regard to race, class, and gender
relations in historic
Charleston society. |
 |
Susan Harbage Page and Juan Logan, Prop Master exhibit, Charleston, South Carolina, 2009. Photo: Rick Rhodes. |
Exhibit Sections:
Introduction | Prop Allocations or Accents for Gracious Living | Famous Last Names | Sexually Ambiguous | Background Material | Welcome Home | Expressions of Affection | Recommended Resources
Introduction:
Artists Susan Harbage Page and Juan Logan designed Prop
Master: An Installation specifically for the Main Gallery of the Gibbes
Museum of Art.
In its totality, Prop Master constitutes what Logan and Page call "a
disruption from within." As the person who acquires and manufactures
props for theatrical and film productions, the prop master is responsible
for
all aspects of their use on a set. Prop Master compares the prop
master and the museum, as well as a production and an exhibition, to
explore how the
elements of an art collection are social props and the art museum a prop
master.
This installation investigates the role of the Gibbes Museum as prop
master and prop with regard to Charleston's social relations.
Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858, the Gibbes Museum took its name from merchant James Shoolbred Gibbes who funded construction of a Beaux Arts-style building which opened to the public in April 1905. The Gibbes houses a collection of ten thousand works, principally American portraits, landscapes, still-lives, and miniature portraits with a Charleston or southern connection. As a society's self-portrait, displaying its aspirations and decorative schemes, such a collection is defined as much by what it excludes or treats as background as by what it includes. An art museum like the Gibbes is analogous to a prop master in how it collects and exhibits art. In so doing, it may support or challenge prevailing racial, gender, and class relations — Prop Master is an example of a challenge.
Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858, the Gibbes Museum took its name from merchant James Shoolbred Gibbes who funded construction of a Beaux Arts-style building which opened to the public in April 1905. The Gibbes houses a collection of ten thousand works, principally American portraits, landscapes, still-lives, and miniature portraits with a Charleston or southern connection. As a society's self-portrait, displaying its aspirations and decorative schemes, such a collection is defined as much by what it excludes or treats as background as by what it includes. An art museum like the Gibbes is analogous to a prop master in how it collects and exhibits art. In so doing, it may support or challenge prevailing racial, gender, and class relations — Prop Master is an example of a challenge.
 |
Susan Harbage Page and Juan Logan, Page
and Logan (far left) talk with museum visitors on Prop Master's
opening night, Charleston, South Carolina, April 2009. Photo: Paul
Cheney. |
About the Artists:
Susan Harbage Page and Juan Logan live in Chapel Hill, where
they teach at the University of North Carolina. Logan is originally from Nashville,
Tennessee, and Page grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. Each has an extensive
career as an artist, with solo and group exhibitions throughout
the country. They share a long-term interest in using art to explore the
intersections of race, class, gender, place, and power.
About the Exhibit:
Along with the artists, various individuals contributed to
the content of this online presentation of the Prop Master exhibit.
Gibbes Executive Director and Chief Curator Angela Mack conceived of the idea
to contact Susan and Juan to collaborate on a major site-specific installation
inspired by the Gibbes' 150 year-old collection. Dr. Laurel Fredrickson, an
art history Scholar in Residence at Duke University, authored the wall text
for the exhibit which also appears in this online version. Rick
Rhodes provided the majority of the photographed images. Marla Loftus of
the Gibbes Museum contributed public relations information and Nick
Smith produced the following film about the construction of Prop Master.
 |
Prop Master at the Gibbes Museum
of Art (9:00 min.)
A short film by Nick Smith, 2009. RealMedia | Windows Media | QuickTime |
Exhibit Sections:
Introduction | Prop Allocations or Accents for Gracious Living | Famous Last Names | Sexually Ambiguous | Background Material | Welcome Home | Expressions of Affection | Recommended Resources
