Kiyan Williams

Spanning performance, sculpture, and video, Kiyan Williams’ (b. 1991 in Newark, New Jersey, US) practice exhumes ignored histories. Attracted to everyday materials and unconventional methods, including singular processes of appropriation and transformation, the artist subverts traditional monumentality and national symbols. In doing so, Williams roots out the hegemonic narratives that those convey and celebrate. Embracing fragments and cracks, their works are reminiscent of ancient ruins or relics that simultaneously conjure up decay and capacities for resilience. By making, unmaking, and remaking, Williams creates embodied works that both fill lacunas and question power dynamics. Soil, in particular, is a recurring material and metaphor that Williams uses to delve into American history and identity, thus unearthing the historical and ongoing forces that have shaped, and tightly tied together, bodies and land.