The Museum of the Old Colony: An Installation by Pablo Delano
HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE ART GALLERY, June 1 - November 1, 2018
The Museum of the Old Colony, a conceptual art installation by Hartford-based artist Pablo Delano, derives its name in part from a U.S. brand of soft drink named Old Colony, popular in Puerto Rico since the 1950s. Old Colony (the beverage) remains available at island groceries and restaurants in two flavors: grape and pineapple. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico endures 523 years of ongoing colonial rule – first under Spain, now the U.S, since 1898. The island, officially defined as an “unincorporated territory of the United States,” is widely regarded as the world’s oldest colony.
Delano deploys enlarged and carefully-sequenced reproductions of original historical materials, invoking the imperial logic of traditional historical and anthropological museums built to celebrate the so-called achievements of Empire and inherent superiority of some people over others. As such, the installation operates within a contemporary art tradition of post-1990s institutional critique (such as Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum), made especially resonant since Hurricane Maria, which rendered the faultlines of US-Puerto Rico relations more widely visible. In many ways, the installation is also a personal meditation on the past and present situation of the place Delano where was born and raised.
Spanning a century of images, this wry, sometimes shocking, and often deeply painful “museum” draws attention to the role of photographers, writers, historians, and other “experts” in constructing (racialized, often primitivist) narratives of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, and naturalizing the United States’s socio-economic and military exploitation of the island under the guise of the “many benefits of citizenship.”
Publication: Print and digital catalogue, with an introduction by Pablo Delano and essays by Amy Halliday and Nelson Rivera.
Programs:
Artist’s Talk: Unpacking The Museum of the Old Colony, June 2 and September 27, 2018
Fall opening reception: Recognition and resistance on the first anniversary of Hurricane Maria: Pablo Delano, Magdalena Gómez, and Puertominicana, September 20, 2018
Visualizing Environmental Injustice in Puerto Rico: Hilda Lloréns, October 16, 2018
Visceral Viewing: Decoding Images through Movement and Writing with Magdalena Gómez, October 17, 2018
Decolonizing Cultural Production and Building Radical Solidarity: A Residency with Agitarte, October 20-24
Race, Sugar, and the Visual Politics of Empire: April Merleaux, October 30, 2018
16 course-integrated visits across Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Amherst Colleges
Press and Public Relations:
The Museum of the Old Colony. Local television interview between curator Amy Halliday and artist Pablo Delano, Amherst Media, September 5, 2018*
The Museum of the Old Colony: Promotional/Introductory Video, Amherst Media, September 5, 2018*
Exhibition Questions History of U.S. Relationship with Puerto Rico through Ironic “Museum” of Empire, Hampshire College website, September 10, 2018
Chris Godreau, Taking on Stereotypes: Hampshire College exhibit looks at colonial history of Puerto Rico, Hampshire Gazette, October 10, 2018
Jill Kauffman, At Hampshire College, A Mock Museum of Appropriated Puerto Rican Identity, New England Public Radio, October 11, 2018
Public Performances to Address U.S. Imperialism from Puerto Rico Viewpoint, Hampshire College website, October 15, 2018