Fred Wilson
Queen Esther/Harriet Tubman, by Fred Wilson, 1992, Ink on acetate, 36.5 x 27.3 cm, The Jewish Museum; Gift of the artist, 1992-35, ©️ Fred Wilson, courtesy Pace Gallery, The Jewish Museum, New York / Art Resource, NY
Hadassah and Harriet
Commentary by Ericka Dunbar
In 1992, African American artist Fred Wilson created a double layered print—perhaps a nod to the double-consciousness that enslaved people experienced in colonial cultures. It fuses a sixteenth-century engraving of Esther (hereafter referred to by her Hebrew name, Hadassah) with one of the most popular and memorable artistic depictions of the American abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Wilson gifted this artwork to the Jewish Museum for a collection that celebrated the intersections of Black and Jewish experiences.
Not only is Wilson's art symbolic of the similarities between two historically minoritized and colonized ethnic collectives but it also illuminates parallels in the lives of two females, Hadassah and Harriet, whose historical activism is often narratively and historically suppressed. Hadassah’s and Harriet’s lives intersect around several experiences:
- colonization (and related experiences of forced physical and sexual enslavement);
- narrative gaps and erasure;
- secrecy and silence;
- movement across geographical terrains/border crossings (in an ancient context, to facilitate the sex trafficking of Hadassah and countless other nameless/faceless girls; for Harriet, as a tool to free the enslaved through the Underground Railroad);
- gender liberation;
- community organizing;
- militant leadership (Hadassah’s guiding of the Jews to survive impending cultural genocide, and Harriet as conductor of the Underground Railroad and as an army spy, nurse, and soldier during the Civil War).
Additionally, these two barrier-breaking, community-liberating figures’ narratives amalgamate around distorted representations. Hadassah’s story in Esther 2 has traditionally been interpreted as a beauty contest in which young, virgin girls compete to replace Queen Vashti. Many biblical interpreters read the book of Esther through the lens of comedy suggesting that elements of the story are laughable, albeit subversive. Similarly, in 2013, record executive Russell Simmons released a satirical video titled, ‘Harriet Tubman Sex Tape’ on his YouTube channel. In the video, which was taken down within 24 hours because of widespread disdain and protest, Harriet is depicted as oversexed and provocative, endeavouring to trick her ‘master’ into supporting her Underground Railroad movement by threating to release a sex tape of their intimate encounter.
These reflections underscore an ideology that sexual abuse—actualized and envisioned, and especially of disempowered and often minoritized girls and women—is often perceived as comedic and unserious. Perhaps silence, secrecy, and masks exacerbate the abuse. Wilson’s picture illuminates that both Hadassah and Harriet embodied and cultivated courage and used wit and trickery to subvert laws and actualize liberation for themselves and for their people.
References
Sargent, Antwaun. 2018. ‘Black History Month: Queen Esther/Harriet Tubman, 27 February 2018’, The Jewish Museum, Available at https://stories.thejewishmuseum.org/black-history-month-masks-for-purim-b21fa8229b4a [accessed 4 April 2024]
