THE MASTER PLAN or In Between the Big Bang and Modern Art is the Restroom

“THE MASTER PLAN or In Between the Big Bang and Modern Art is the Restroom” (2004-2009) consists of 22 photogravures where Wilson has utilized specific gallery layouts from visitor orientation maps of eighteen European and North American museums of anthropology, art, cultural or natural history. Omitted from these maps are all but a few words and icons of collection care terminology or visitor services signage. Displayed as an immersive installation of evocative but anonymous abstract forms, a viewer can explore one’s own “master narrative” by comparing one plan or symbol usage to the next. The subtitle, “In Between the Big Bang and Modern Art is the Restroom” evokes an evolutionary perspective, the legacy of colonialism and imperialism, still embodied today in the organization of materials cared for by Western museums, supported in most cases by a hierarchically distributed space division. Hopefully, while the removal of information leaves room for assumptions, indicators highlighted by the artist enable a clearer path of thinking.

Wilson recalls that, at the beginning of his career, “working simultaneously in the educational department of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the American Craft Museum made me wonder about how the environment in which cultural production is placed affects the way the viewer feels about the artwork and the artist who made these things.“