Installation view of Kiyan Williams’ solo exhibition at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022). Photo by Jeff Mcclane.
A recent exhibition by the artist Kiyan Williams bore the title A Past that is Future Tense. It was on view in the lofty and ornate space of Peres Projects in Milan, where the presentation assembled works spanning fragments of statues rendered in plaster, gypsum columns, and battered American flags. The scenery, at first glance, appeared to recreate a field of ruins, and the pieces draw on familiar iconographies—all related to nation, architectures of power and identity. Each of these elements constitutes a complex sign.
