Xavier Hufkens will present a new series of works by American artist Rachel Eulena Williams (b. 1991, Miami) at West Bund Art & Design. Known for her intricate assemblages of canvas and rope, textiles and pigment, Williams creates objects that challenge the boundaries of painting and sculpture. This presentation brings the interdisciplinary nature of her practice to the fore whilst also showcasing the latest developments in her oeuvre.
Williams always departs from a negative: the space within an empty stretcher frame. In a deft reversal of function, she transforms the canvas itself into a medium: first painting the cloth, then cutting it into pieces. These coloured scraps of canvas, which accumulate in her studio over time, are the substance of her work. Added to the mix are assorted textiles and pieces of rope. With these disparate materials, Williams fills the void inside the stretcher, creating unique visual compositions that she subsequently paints. Her process thus follows a pattern of creation (the initial painting), deconstruction (cutting) and recreation (assemblage and repainting); a form of breaking down and rebuilding. This is particularly evident in her new assemblages, which reveal the logic of their making to an unprecedented degree.
The richness and complexity of the work lends itself to multiple readings. Formally, it engages with the traditional concerns of painting and sculpture: positive and negative space, exposure and concealment, depth and structure. Yet Williams is beholden to neither discipline and her work defies easy categorisation: it is both painting and sculpture, yet also a form of textile art and memory-making. Another frame of reference is the time-honoured tradition, particularly in African American communities, of patchwork, sewing and recycling; a make-do-and-mend attitude, that, in this age of overconsumption, is more relevant than ever before. Furthermore, the materials in which she works—cotton and rope—are as ancient as they are ambiguous. Are they practical, everyday staples or powerful symbols of colonialism and slavery? And while this is never directly expressed, the deconstruction and reconstruction of these otherwise plain materials—making them colourful, joyful and optimistic—can also be construed as a restorative act.
The varied components in her work also introduce the concept of time. Some scraps are old, cut from canvases painted years ago, while others are new. The ropes have long been in her possession, collected from countless locations. All these moment-specific markers converge in Williams' work. Observant viewers will note the reappearance of certain fabrics and forms in different series and pieces. Superimposed on them all, binding the parts together, is the pigment that Williams applies in the here and now. In this, there is an allusion to memory and the inescapable entanglement of past and present.
A new development in Williams' oeuvre is the use of horizontal and vertical bands of colour. Art historical resonances and optical illusions go hand in hand in these works, especially when viewed from afar. What could easily be mistaken for a painted surface reveals itself, upon closer inspection, to be a textile composition. Even the seemingly 'empty spaces' around the coloured planes have been carefully stitched into place. If Williams' more complex compositions evoke the intuitive spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism, then these simpler variants call to mind Colour Field painting. Male artists played a dominant role in both these movements but here, in Rachel Eulena Williams' work, we detect an alternative, feminine vision of the canon. One that owesits existence to the fibres and fabrics of handicrafts, long branded as 'women's work'. But unlike historical Colour Field painting, there is nothing static about Williams' compositions. On the contrary: she creates movement and dynamism through a dazzling interplay of colour, texture, pattern, stitchwork and threads.
Rachel Eulena Williams (b. 1991, Miami, Florida, USA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a BFA from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, also in New York. The artist's first institutional solo exhibition will open at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland in 2023.