Maya Freelon Art Exhibition: Whippersnappers

Maya Freelon: Whippersnappers will premiere large-scale sculptures, archival photographs, paintings, and collages that transform a former plantation. Fully titled Whippersnappers: Recapturing, Reviewing, and Reimagining the Lives of Enslaved Children in the United States, Freelon’s first large-scale installation featuring portraiture was born from her research of enslaved children highlighted in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. The site-responsive installation features new works on view in Stagville’s 1799 Bennehan House, the preserved home of the former plantation owners.

Using thousands of pieces of tissue paper in a myriad of ways, Freelon has created a visual dreamscape through large-scale sculptures and quilts all utilizing her signature “bleeding” tissue paper techniques, alongside historical documents from the Library of Congress and other significant archives, and artifacts from the North Carolina Historic Sites Collection.Works on view in the 1799 Bennehan House will span six rooms across two floors. Spaces include the attic, a downstairs room with many uses, including childbirth, and a former office where the names of newborn enslaved children were recorded as property. “Through Whippersnappers, I want to use the healing potential of art to shine a light on a subject often ignored and reclaim a space that was once used to disempower and oppress,” said Freelon. “I want visitors to move through the exhibition and leave remembering the innocence of childhood, which encourages collective healing.”

Whippersnappers is organized by Art on the Land, a North Carolina Historic Sites initiative seeking to activate sites of memory through artistic collaborations, place-based art, editorial offerings, and gatherings. Art on the Land is directed and curated by Director of North Carolina Historic Sites, Michelle Lanier, and Curator-at-Large, Johnica Rivers. On Whippersnappers, Lanier shares: “Maya Freelon’s powerful offering to our youngest ancestors will activate Stagville’s historic landscapes and interiors with a posture of healing through reclaiming and reframing memory."