DIDIER WILLIAM
Living in Brilliant Suspension (Viv Pandye Nan Briyans)
curated by Jerry Philogene
Living in Brilliant Suspension (Viv Pandye Nan Briyans) is a solo exhibition featuring works by Didier William. Curated by scholar Jerry Philogene, the exhibition features more than 20 works exploring the relationship between the body, ground, and land, offering poetic reflections on the contemporary narratives of living and ancestral memories of belonging. The new works are influenced by the flora and fauna produced in the wetlands and swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin in northwest Louisiana, allegorically connecting people to water, history, and the sedimentation created in the wetlands by movement and time. Continuing with his signature imagery of bodies ungrounded and navigating atemporal geographies that expound on the immigrant experience and the kinetic life of displaced people, these paintings, drawings, and sculptural figures offer vibrant and brilliant texture and materiality for capturing generational memories. Combining artistic techniques such as painting, collage, and printmaking with the artisan practice of carving, William has developed a singular and distinct painting surface that is beautifully poignant as it is aesthetically riveting. Featuring more than 20 works, Living in Brilliant Suspension (Viv Pandye Nan Briyans) offers poetic reflections on the contemporary narratives of living and the ancestral memories of belonging. ArtYard visitors will encounter works of art that bring about the imaginary and the metaphysical as liberatory spaces empowered in non-gravitational stability.
Catalogue
On the occasion of Didier William’s solo exhibition at ArtYard, a comprehensive monographic catalogue was been published, offering critical essays, full-color reproductions, and an in-depth exploration of the artist’s practice.
About Jerry Philogene
Art historian and curator, Jerry Philogene is Associate Professor and Director of Black Studies at Middlebury College. She specializes in interdisciplinary American cultural history, art history, and visual arts of the Caribbean and the African diaspora with an emphasis on the Francophone Caribbean. In 2023, she co-curated Myrlande Constant: The Work of Radiance at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, celebrating contemporary Haitian textile art. She’s also a recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and is currently writing two books on Haitian visual aesthetics.
