Client: Kiyan Williams
Location: New York, NY, United States
Completion date: 2024
Project Team
Artist
Kiyan Williams
Kiyan Williams Studio
Project Management, 3D Design, Engineering
Staff
Johnson Atelier Digital
Armature Build
Staff
Johnson Atelier
Curator
The Whitney Museum
Overview
Kiyan Williams is a 33-year-old who specializes in transforming wet soil into hardened sculptures. Williams collects earth from historically important sites of loss in the African diaspora and wants to give these painful histories a chance to regenerate. Williams is a multidisciplinary artist and one of the stars to emerge from the Whitney Biennial. Williams has built an early career re-envisioning the political symbols that define American life and has an interest in nature.
Goals
Williams' goal is to give painful histories a chance to regenerate, allowing life to flourish in the hostile conditions known by those who identify as Black, nonbinary, transfeminine. Williams wants to engage in the lives of people whose stories don't show up in traditional documents through their art. Williams also aims to address the symbolic images and objects associated with structures of power through their work.
Process
The collapsing dirt facsimile of the White House portico required nearly 6,000 pounds of earth and steel. Johnson Atelier Digital developed a 3D model of the White House North Portico as a steel armature. The armature consisted of 4 columns, pediment, plain black wall, and a flag pole. The structure was designed to be tilted 15 degrees to the right. Once it was constructed, the artist then added the steel mesh with their custom dirt mixture. Alongside the crumbling portico, Williams is displaying a human-scale monument of trans activist Marsha P. Johnson. Williams has resisted a conventional partnership with a gallery and currently finds most of their support through institutions.
Additional Information
One of Williams' obsessions is federal architecture, which led to the creation of an earthen sculpture modeled on a 19-foot bronze statue of a female form designed by Thomas Crawford, which was installed atop the Capitol in 1863. The Whitney Biennial commission, “Ruins of Empire II or The Earth Swallows the Master’s House,” is the sequel. The Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than The Real Thing: MAR 20–AUG 11, 2024