Susan Harbage Page and Juan Logan, Prop Master at the Gibbes Museum of Art; Southern Spaces

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.

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.

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.

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