Frazier Museum (Un)Known Project Art Installation

On June 1, 2022 the Frazier History Museum unveiled a commissioned art piece by glass artist Ché Rhodes as part of (Un)Known Project.

“We are pleased to feature the work of renowned Louisville glass artist Ché Rhodes in the Frazier History Museum’s portion of the (Un)Known Project,” said Amanda Briede, Curator at Frazier History Museum. “His work will provide a contemplative space for visitors to reflect on the known and unknown stories of the enslaved people of Kentucky. Recreating items owned by enslaved people out of beautifully blown glass, the preciousness of Ché’s material reflects the preciousness of these common items to the enslaved people who owned them. The work will be featured in our new exhibition, The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall. This exhibition showcases diverse voices in Kentucky’s history by sharing their stories in the story of the Commonwealth.”

Rhodes research included visiting Roots 101 and former plantations including Locust Grove, where he identified items that would have been part of the everyday lives of enslaved people – including spoons and a cowbell. Working with his team, Rhodes scanned the spoon and cowbell to create 3D printed molds that were used to cast 100 glass replicas of each item.

During his interview with Stephanie Wolf from WFPL, Rhodes said, “It isn’t entirely surprising, but it really makes you think about… the kind of redacted or revisionist erasure of an entire cultural history, not to mention the material wealth.”

And the importance of the blown glass? “If you are looking at a clear glass object, it’s kind of there and not there at the same time,” he told Wolf. “And that’s, I think, how we might experience the history of enslaved people. We’re all aware of it… but we don’t really have much in terms of historical record, any material culture to really look at. So it’s an embodiment of those things.”

Rhodes glass objects are installed inside a 3D printed cabin the size of slave quarters in Kentucky, with portraits along the adjacent wall featuring the stories including that of the Blackburns – a couple enslaved in Kentucky who escaped and made their way to Canada.

Visit the Frazier History Museum’s The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall exhibit to see Rhodes’ (Un)Known Project art installation that sits beside the clock from the Town Clock Church, an Underground Railroad site across the Ohio River in New Albany, Indiana.

Photos by Stephanie Wolf and Josh Miller.