Lessons of the Hour also references slavery, through the extraordinary life of pioneering human rights activist, abolitionist and freed slave and orator, Frederick Douglass. The ten screen installation is a poetic meditation of his life centred on three profound speeches, including the powerful ‘What to the Slave is the 4th of July,’ given in 1852 at an Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York. Considered one of the world’s most influential historical speeches, Douglass took aim at the hypocrisy of American notions of freedom, shining a light on the horrors of slavery and the exclusion of African-Americans from a dominant white society.

Julien says in Lessons of the Hour he wanted to review what America is today. “You can see a continuation of Civil War in America, from the 19th century to now. We all know about George Floyd and all the other things that have happened in America since then, and continue to happen, so I wanted to go back to the 19th century, and found this fantastic orator. He was really at the forefront of really pushing certain questions which America is still dealing with today, and hasn’t answered them properly yet.”

Douglass was also keenly interested in the power of photography, becoming the most photographed person in America in his lifetime. Ditching the romantic backdrops popular in photographs at the time, he insisted on plain backgrounds which would give full force, and attention, to his striking appearance and gaze. Douglass said, “Pictures, like songs, should be left to make their own way in the world. All they can reasonably ask of us is that we place them on the wall in the best possible light, and the rest – allow them to speak for themselves.”