The Fair Flair of Facades

The Fair Flair of Facades

Isa Murray and Isa Murray

Final Presentation + Brief

Isa Murray

The project emphasizes the history of the black heritage trail in the historic Beacon Hill neighborhood through interactive facade installations that protrude out of the front of the Museum of African American History illustrating the major events that occurred on the trail. The facades draw attention to the historical layerings within each facade of the site  and help visitors engage in the visualization of the history.

The project is inspired by a painting done by Charles Gaines, Matilda #4. Charles Gaines, a renowned contemporary artist of the darker complexion, resides in Los Angeles. Charles Gaines is famous for his use of mosaic layers in his artwork to emphasize certain areas of a photograph or painting. In Matilda #4 Charles Gaines overlays several mosaics in vibrant colors over a photograph of a tree made out of brown tiles. He also believes that using mosaics and grids brings the ego out of art, similar to the project bringing the ego out of beacon hill and revealing the black heritage trail's history.

To build this, three or four stainless steel facades are designed with a staircase allowing people to interact with one of the facades. The facades, which are implanted in the sidewalk, are colored with the colors that Charles Gaines uses in his mosaics, green, blue, red, and possibly yellow. The facades also have perforations where the doors and windows are placed on the side of the museum. The steel facades will have shapes cut out of them portraying the history of the BHT. The first facade illustrates the George Middleton house on the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade where white people mobbed the celebrators and George Middleton came out of his house and threatened the mob with a loaded musket. The second facade visualizes a day in the Abiel Smith School with a silhouette of a classroom filled with people. Finally, the third facade is a cutout of the title of The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper that singled out and patronized racist people.