WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - The Williams College Museum of Art will present seven artists’ renditions in a new exhibition visualizing Black freedom, agency and the legacy of the Civil War today and beyond. 

"Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation” showcases contemporary African American artists responding to the sculpture "The Freedman" by John Quincy Adams Ward. It portrays a black man with broken shackles, and was inspired by the emancipation proclamation declaring an end to slavery. 

In one perspective, visitors will find a pop of color along walls made of tissue paper. It's the work of Maya Freelon. 

“I love working with tissue paper because of its fragility and airness, lightness and beauty," Freelon said. "And it’s also something that we tend to think is fragile, but I like to build quilts with them and then make these monumental sculptures that are actually quite strong and resilient.”

Freelon’s work is recycled between each project. She uses the tissue paper as a paint brush on her canvases and she uses the crumpled up and torn apart pieces in her big quilt sculptures on the wall, so nothing ever goes to waste. 

Freelon said to her, using recycled materials is itself an emancipatory act, because it allows accessible materials to take up space within historically inaccessible institutions.

“My take on it was the freedom of ingenuity of Black people, how we used the scraps of quilts during the time of enslavement, the worst materials, and turn them into really beautiful objects of comfort but also functionality and beauty," she said. "So it’s paying homage to my grandmother, my great grandmother and even beyond that, the ancestors that struggled and were oppressed but can now be honored in a really special way.”

Freelon's grandmother got her into using tissue paper, keeping it for her to have whenever she needed it. Around 17 years ago Freelon found the tissue paper creating a beautiful stain because of a leaked pipe, and has chosen to work with it ever since.

The tissue paper not only represents beauty, but how strong it can get when put together.

“To me, it reminds me of, like, an individual could seem like a scrap or a piece of trash or something that’s insignificant, but when it’s joined together with others ,there’s strength and power in the unity of the work," Freelon said. "And so I feel like people are like that too.”

The emancipation exhibition started touring in 2023, and the Williams College Museum of Art is its third stop. The exhibition is will be on display from Feb. 16 through July 14.