“Cherokee Phoenix: The Birth and Revival of Cherokee Printing in the Southeast,” by Adam Doskey and Frank Brannon. Part of Hearsay exhibition. Courtesy Mike Jensen
Hearsay, on display at the Zuckerman Museum of Art (ZMA) from July 26 to October 25, 2014, explored southern narrative through a series of solo projects. Each project offered alternative points of view to the historical canon, providing a window into the world of second-hand information. Not necessarily based in fact (though many are), the projects in Hearsay privileged information and perspectives that have been historically underrepresented, obscured, fictionalized, or untold. I curated the exhibition with Teresa Bramlette Reeves and Kirstie Tepper of the ZMA.
Hearsay had two companion catalogs, John Q: Projects 2009-2013 and Excerpts. View a .pdf of the Excerpts catalog here.
The idea for the project began in conversation with idea collective John Q in 2012. I find the work of John Q (Joey Orr, Andy Ditzler, and Wesley Chenault) fascinating–its members aim to “activate” the archives by presenting public works based on Atlanta’s queer histories. To explore the connections between public art and public history practice, I interviewed John Q and their sometime collaborator, E.G. Crichton (of UC Santa Cruz and the GLBT Historical Society), for the National Council on Public History blog History@Work.
The exhibition has received praise from critics; read reviews from Burnaway and ArtsATL.
