Work commemorating anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass to be brought to Scotland

Now a “poetic meditation” on Frederick Douglass by Turner Prize-nominated artist Isaac Julien is to be brought to Scotland - to be showcased in the exact place where he delivered four speeches against the slave trade.

Lessons of the Hour, by Turner Prize-nominated British artist Julien, marks the life and times of Douglass, an orator, philosopher, intellectual, and self-liberated freedom-fighter, who was born into slavery in Maryland, in the US.

The exhibition will open in October at Perth Museum, exploring Douglass’s time in Scotland and Perthshire’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade.

It is being brought to Scotland in a partnership with London art museum Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland through the Artist Rooms programme.

During his 1846 campaign against US slavery across the UK and Ireland, Douglass delivered four speeches in Perth in the former City Hall building, on the very site where Perth Museum is now located. Julien’s work, and in turn this exhibition, takes its title from Frederick Douglass’s final delivered speech in 1894.

The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass, who played a critical role in anti-slavery and human rights movements in Scotland and around the world. Inspired by some of his most influential speeches and enriched by stories from his personal and public life, the exhibition also investigates Perthshire’s significant links to the slave trade and how they still shape the region today.

Ashleigh Hibbins, head of audiences and learning at Culture Perth and Kinross, said: “Like much of Scotland, Perth and Kinross had close links with the horrors of transatlantic slavery and its impacts are still with us today. I cannot think of a more fitting location than Perth Museum for the first and only Scottish venue to host Lessons of the Hour as part of the inaugural Artist Rooms UK tour.

“Our museum stands on the very spot where Frederick Douglass himself would have spoken to packed-out crowds as part of his powerful anti-slavery campaigning across Scotland. Julien’s powerful immersive artwork re-energises Douglass’s life and legacy for a new generation, and we are proud to play our part in re-introducing this story to the people of Perth and Scotland.”

Anne Lyden, director general of National Galleries of Scotland, said: “It feels only right that this tour will begin in Scotland and importantly Perth, where Frederick Douglass made a lasting impact through his dedication to human rights and anti-slavery. This is a fantastic opportunity for visitors to Perth Museum to re-discover Douglass’s fascinating story through the powerful and poignant artwork of Isaac Julien.”

The exhibition will continue next year to other cities where Frederick Douglass spoke multiple times during his nineteen-month campaign around the UK and Ireland, including Belfast and Bristol.

Mr Julien said: “I wished to use the distinctive language of filmmaking and photography to create artworks that would hopefully inspire others, to delve into the poetic words of Frederick Douglass and the aesthetics of his writings, which gives meaning to our lives during these challenging times, and to engage with things that still require our commitment and struggle.

“I believe, as Douglass wrote, that aesthetics and politics have a fundamental role to play in the reconstitution of our humanity.”