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KANDIS WILLIAMS — A FIELD

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I was in the art world from the beginning, being at Cooper Union. But even then, I was never convinced of the art world as a thing to do. I started directing arts-based nonprofits, teaching art classes for kids, and giving the homies teaching jobs right after school. It felt redemptive in a way. What is nice lately is feeling the traction of things repeating in my own mind. Feeling a strong foundation for a lot of my ideas to take different forms—a play, a book, a website, a piece of writing. It’s feeling more and more like I’m producing from that well. The more that becomes a well, the more I feel like I’ve made stuff and that I’ve always been making stuff in this way. — Kandis Williams*

Williams’ exhibition A FIELD—an installation incorporating sculpture, photography, and video—“considers horticultural environments to explore the ways in which people, much like the crops they cultivate, can be subject to exploitation and control. By examining systems that seek to classify and manage, Williams reminds us of the potential in evasion; that there is power in remaining wild. To evade cultivation is to commit to growth on our own terms; to nurture and be rooted in our desire for change and adaptation.”**

See link below for further details.

 

 

KANDIS WILLIAMS—A FIELD**

Through September 12.

Institute for Contemporary Art

Virginia Commonwealth University

601 West Broad Street, Richmond.

*Kandis Williams interview by Chloe Wayne and Mahfuz Sultan, PIN-UP 29 (Fall–Winter 2020/21).

 

 

Kandis Williams, A Field, Institute for Contemporary Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, November 6, 2020–September 12, 2021. Film images from Kandis Williams, Annexation Tango (2020). Photographs by David Hale. Images © Kandis Williams, courtesy of the artist and ICA, Richmond.