Archival Showcase on Maud Sulter's Hysteria

This archival showcase focused on Maud Sulter’s multi-media installation, Hysteria, 1991. It brought together rare items, photographs and print materials from the collections of the Artist’s Estate and Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, where Hysteria was shown in November 1992. Hysteria was inspired by the nineteenth-century woman sculptor of colour, Edmonia Lewis, whose photograph is reproduced on the Street Level poster, displayed on the wall. Hysteria was made at Tate Liverpool whose premises on the docks in Liverpool are referenced in the work and its promotional materials. Liverpool was a major slavery port. The archival showcase illuminated the complexity of the original installation, some elements of which have not survived or yet been located. It also revealed some of the initial responses to Hysteria. The archival showcase, co-curated by Deborah Cherry & Malcolm Dickson of Street Level, was commissioned by Mumok for the exhibition, Avant-garde & Liberation, an exhibition which highlights the significance of global modernism for contemporary art.

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