Carletta Carrington Wilson
night of the stereotypes: an installation

Do you ever think of owning your own home?
Stripped of the ability to make themselves known as not only historical but human beings, the African body, under enslavement, became a surface upon which images, representation, meanings and definitions were ascribed and imposed upon by their captors. Through the use of paper, pen, film, cloth and other materials countless objects populated a world of caricatures traveling further, wider, longer, through and over time. Taking on a life of their own, the imagined took hold, proliferated and were inserted into societies crossing the globe. They stood in as markers of the marked, as objects of ridicule and derision in the minds of European and American people.
The mixed-media installation, night of the stereotypes, includes a zine in which mammy and pickaninny embark, with a host of other stereotypical caricatures prevalent in the 19th and 20th centuries, on a journey to confront the image-makers and, especially, to demand a role in the portrayal of their likeness on the silver screen. The zine accompanies an installation of objects interrogating stereotypical images of African Americans from the late 19th to early 20th century.

Carletta Carrington Wilson's mixed-media collages have been described as "decorative with a message." Textiles, found objects, beads and paper revolve around a central iconic image. These elements serve the purpose of enhancing, highlighting, inferring and interrogating the image and the ideas it presents and portrays. In addition to an iconic image, Wilson's collage series are accompanied by a title poem, which illuminates the sensibilities that are being visually expressed. Wilson said, “My work continues to be an exploration of the "text of textiles." I am an explorer of the ways of cloth, traveler on its byways, never tourist, neither voyeur, but curious, a questioner, a seeker of the unseen.”
Wilson’s work can be found in the Book Art Collections of the Allen Library (University of Washington), Collins Memorial Library (University of Puget Sound) and in the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas. She has exhibited at ArtXchange Gallery, Gallery 110, the Northwest African American Museum, Coalition Art Gallery, Gallery Rene, Columbia City Art Gallery, Onyx Fine Arts Exhibition, University of Puget Sound, Seward Park Audubon Center, Festival Sundiata, Harem, Aljoya and University House Wallingford. In 2011, she was artist in residence at the James W. Washington Foundation. The exhibit book of the bound debuted at the Northwest African American Museum 2012-2013. letter to a laundress was featured at the Onyx Fine Arts Annual Exhibit of 2017. Website: carlettacarringtonwilson.com