Sydney Williams
Sydney Williams (re)creates oversized geometric shapes in unexpected scale, abstracting them from purpose. Her practice is best described as post-conceptual ceramics. Maternal arabesques are scaled to dominating proportions, and imaginative memory is tempered with influences of symbolic form. Borrowing from conceptualists of the 1960’s and an art form traced back to the Neolithic age, roughly 10,000 years ago Williams's work interrogates an object’s functionality, combined with an innate, natural connection to the human figure. The nomenclature of pottery, with vocabulary like ‘lip,’ ‘neck,’ and ‘feet,’ are anthropomorphically termed. Specifically, Williams’ objects are positioned between an awareness of our body (similar to the Minimalist predisposition towards ‘theatricality’ outside of the Modernist narrative) and the (non) functionality of an object. However, the methodology of her chosen medium and the inspiration for her artworks are rooted with purpose. Seeking to redefine the definition of art, Williams's work asks the question: "Can functional art be critical?"
Williams’ practice is a reflection on the indebtedness that the symbolic has for the “the kinetic functional stage of the semiotic” which “precedes the sign” in the philosophies of Julie Kristeva. Shapes and tools are a vehicle of learning outside the parameters of adult pedagogy, before we are introduced to …
Sydney Williams (re)creates oversized geometric shapes in unexpected scale, abstracting them from purpose. Her practice is best described as post-conceptual ceramics. Maternal arabesques are scaled to dominating proportions, and imaginative memory is tempered with influences of symbolic form. Borrowing from conceptualists of the 1960’s and an art form traced back to the Neolithic age, roughly 10,000 years ago Williams's work interrogates an object’s functionality, combined with an innate, natural connection to the human figure. The nomenclature of pottery, with vocabulary like ‘lip,’ ‘neck,’ and ‘feet,’ are anthropomorphically termed. Specifically, Williams’ objects are positioned between an awareness of our body (similar to the Minimalist predisposition towards ‘theatricality’ outside of the Modernist narrative) and the (non) functionality of an object. However, the methodology of her chosen medium and the inspiration for her artworks are rooted with purpose. Seeking to redefine the definition of art, Williams's work asks the question: "Can functional art be critical?"
Williams’ practice is a reflection on the indebtedness that the symbolic has for the “the kinetic functional stage of the semiotic” which “precedes the sign” in the philosophies of Julie Kristeva. Shapes and tools are a vehicle of learning outside the parameters of adult pedagogy, before we are introduced to the meaning of language. Williams is interested in learning in conjunction with the body. The push and pull of these two modalities of semiotic and symbolic create different modes of articulation and expression. The artist explores these revolutionary possibilities Kristeva proposes with earth and stone: the oldest, most humble of all materials.
Born in Dallas, Texas in 1992, Sydney Wiliams received her BFA in Ceramics at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. In 2015 she was awarded Second Place in the Spring Juried Student Art Competition at the Texas Christian University School of Art. She has exhibited at numerous galleries across Texas, including solo exhibitions at CYDONIA in Dallas, TX and Moudy Gallery at the Texas Christian University. She lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas.
Courtesy of CYDONIA
