Author Description

Using furniture-based installations that include writings and mixed media, "The Baartman Diaries" document the work of artist Fo Wilson, who reimagines the voice of Sara Baartman, a South African woman who became known as the “Hottentot Venus” in early 19th-century Europe. In this work Baartman is represented by fictional diary entries that cross time and space and speak to other historical and contemporary figures such as Charles Darwin, the famous 19th-century French naturalist George Cuvier, Josephine Baker and Lil’ Kim.