Notes on Digging, 2020
Single Channel Video with Sound
TRT: 8min 29sec
In a format similar to a video diary, Williams shares the process of researching and installing a new artwork called Reaching Towards Warmer Suns (2020), a set of sculptures resembling long arms with upstretched hands that are made of earth from, and rise up out of the banks of, the James River in Virginia. As a form of care, Williams finds refuge in touching, digging, and creating with soil; for the artist, who lives in Brooklyn and was recently based in Richmond while on a yearlong fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University, soil is a salve. The video was commissioned by The Shed for its Up Close series, digital works presented virtually during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine.
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