The inaugural volume in a new series of books, Kandis Williams
documents the Los Angeles-based artist's exhibition A Line.
Interrogating issues of race, nationalism, authority, and eroticism, her
topical work is made across collage, sculpture, and video.
Williams draws on her background in dramaturgy to envision a space that
accommodates the biopolitical economies that inform how movement might
be read. Looking at the interconnections between popular culture and
myth, she relates in her work anatomy, regions of Black diaspora, and
communication and obfuscation. Williams's body of work shapes an
alternative language that examines how Black moving bodies are regarded.
Williams continues to make visible the inexpressible violence Black
bodies have been subjected to in dance and beyond.
Featuring contributions by the curator of 52 Walker--a David Zwirner
gallery space--Ebony L. Haynes and the artist and writer Hannah Black,
and a stirring conversation between Williams and the choreographer Okwui
Okpokwasili, the book serves as an extension of the exhibition. Included
are high-quality illustrations of the artworks alongside rich archival
materials.
About the Clarion Series
The series title Clarion is derived from the Clarion Science Fiction
and Fantasy Writers' Workshop at the University of California, San
Diego. Octavia Butler attended this workshop in the 1970s. Butler's
writing has been influential in the conceptual framework of the program
and the Clarion series. The series captures 52 Walker's gallery
program ethos; a commercial, kunsthalle-like, gallery where shows run
for several months, it focuses on showcasing conceptual and
research-based artists from a range of backgrounds and at various stages
in their careers. Envisioned by Haynes with the aim "to highlight and
expand on the shows' conceptual theses through newly commissioned
critical texts, interviews, archival material, and artistic
interventions," Clarion will be a crucial touchpoint for those
interested in engaging further with its artists' practice.
