Artist: Bri Williams
Exhibition title: Angel Abra
Venue: Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, Switzerland
Date: September 5 – November 28, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunsthaus Glarus
The exhibition by Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) is now followed by two solo exhibitions by Bri Williams and Elliot Reed. Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) was given carte blanche from the institution in inviting both artists. The works of Bri Williams and Elliot Reed are being presented in Switzerland for the first time.
Bri Williams (*1993, lives and works in Los Angeles) creates sculptures and installations from found objects, often with a personal connection to specific things and their history. These are reworked in a process using soap as material until they appear encased within it. This shift blurs the contours of the objects, giving them a strange, even eerie aura. The soap is used allegorically, to contain and examine past traumas, but also functions as a spiritual cleansing. Williams’s work goes beyond familial connections to address collective physical and psychological memories and identity structures. Many of the works in Angel Abra were created on site in Glarus.
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“Angel Abra. A metal ornament that is mechanized by the heat of a candle. After the candles are lit under the bells, the metal heats up and starts to chime, eventually causing the angels to dance around in a circle at the top of the ornament.
Heat can be a metaphor for passion, anger, amongst other emotions that anticipate some kind of aggressive movement. At times it feels natural to externalize the heat we receive, to simmer, to combust, to cry, to scream, to sing. Static movement can become a source of resistance. Body becomes vehicle. Walking and talking, working all while towing around an invisible weight.
Bumping cars, sometimes causing friction to relieve internal tension.
The energy induces a dance. We dance until what ails us withers away into dust.”
-Bri Williams
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, starring daggers, 2021, carousel horse stand, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Rejection, 2021, lace table cloth, soap, mirror, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. starring daggers, 2021, carousel horse stand / I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep…, 2021, burnt carousel horses, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep…, 2021, burnt carousel horses, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep…, 2021, burnt carousel horses, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, restraint system, 2021, rubber, bed frame cover, crickets, earring, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Mimic, 2021, soap, crickets, mirror, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Alter, 2021, dress, soap, ship part, hanging plank, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. The floorboards shake and knees give out, 2021, soap, rust dyed quilt, earring parts, wood, nails, Courtesy the artist / Torso, 2018, soap, necklace, resin, Courtesy the artist and Queer Thoughts, New York / Reflex II, 2021, rusted metal, rubber, pleather, earring parts, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. The Roses That Grew From Concrete, 2021, soap, resin, roses, Courtesy the artist and Queer Thoughts, New York. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Angel Abra, installation view, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2021. Pest Control, 2020, resin, soap, wax, sharpie, frame, Courtesy the artist and Queer Thoughts, New York / Rapture, 2021, soap, raven wings, book case, key, belt, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, The floorboards shake and knees give out, 2021, soap, rust dyed quilt, earring parts, wood, nails, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Torso, 2018, soap, necklace, resin, Courtesy the artist and Queer Thoughts, New York. Photo: CE
Bri Williams, Reflex II, 2021, rusted metal, rubber, pleather, earring parts, Courtesy the artist. Photo: CE