Visual Analysis Of 'Grey Area' By Fred Wilson

In the Brooklyn Museum, on the fourth floor, lives Fred Wilson’s “Grey Area (Brown Version”. Part-sculpture, part-installation piece, “Grey Area (Brown Version)” depicts five busts of Nefertiti, the egyptian queen, each painted a different shade of “nude”, from a pale custard to a deep brown. The shelves the busts sit on and the wall behind them are painted a shade of tan. As a Black man himself, Wilson’s art often focuses on the representation and lives of African and Black people around the world and “Grey Area” keeps to this tune. The various shades of “nude” Nefertiti is painted in references the racial ambiguity many modern depictions of Egyptians seem to contain. While often in art, Western art in particular, Africans are shown with very dark skin, Egyptians are often treated differently. One can remember in recent history controversy over the 2016 film, Gods of Egypt, in which an almost entirely white cast played important Egyptian gods and figures. Wilson painting Nefertiti different colors suggest how different people choose to see Egyptians in different ways. The background color plays a role in our perception as well. …show more content…
This is the color one might get from a pencil once labeled “skin color”. This “skin color” is perceived as universal yet also very much perceived as white. Painting the background this “skin color” gives us a frame of reference for the different shades Nefertiti is painted. Where does the skin color of Ancient Egyptians compare to this universal tone? Are they much lighter or much darker? Would we consider them White or Black or somewhere in between? “Grey Area (Brown Version” doesn’t answer to these questions, but it forces us to ponder them and question our own perception of Ancient