CAROL RASHAWNNA WILLIAMS
Artist Statement
'The Subject itself, identity itself, is not total. The problem with Western theories of identity is that difference is perfectly defined and delineated, which is an aggregate of differences. The marginal stamps itself in the subject, it is tolerated, but by making it explicit it is also put under surveillance.
The problem is that the map of interculturality does not take into account the blind spots, the shadows, the slips and residue; a space where zero is a value.'
- PERIPHEREIES OF THE BODY
Juan Ramon Medina Precioso
The Climate Justice Fight here in the U.S. and around the world is not just a fight against the [biggest] ecological crisis of all time. It is the fight for a new economy, a new energy system, a new democracy , a new relationship to the planet and to each other, for land, water, and food sovereignty, for Indigenous rights, for human rights and dignity for all . When climate justice wins, we win the world we want. We can't sit this one out, not because we have too much to loose, but because we have too much to gain.
- Miya Yoshitanti in speech during People's Climate March, New York, Sept 2012
Garden vs. Machinebrain - The Failure of our politics to keep pace with reality, the way ideology presents adaptation, new science gives us new sight about how the world works, what must follow is a new story:
self-interest, the meaning of citizenship, the nature of the economy, and the role of government. How we conceptualize self interest, at key moments in history, has changed fundamentally - the enlightenment was one such moment; the science of our current age is giving us another...
We compare and contrast these old and new stories of systems, causation and agency - the fundamental shift of this second enlightenment is from atomized individualism to networked interdependence, and this forces a new concept of self-interest. Why "it's not my problem" is a problem and why too many people think citizenship is for suckers, both the market and the state have crowded out citizenship, reducing it to a cramped and crabby consumerism - the intellectual foundation of our old idea of citizenship is outmoded - a new basis for understanding healthy civic life, drawn from the science and reality of interdependence and contagion - citizens as gardeners...
~ Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer
The Gardens of Democracy
ARTIST STATEMENT:
A Seattle-based, interdisciplinary artist who makes work
that engages audiences in conversations about social, environmental and racial justice.
Throughout her practice, Williams contends that the only way to shift race relations and understand climate change is through collective imaginings and re-imaginings of equitable relationships to the land, animals and resources. Williams’ aesthetic forms fall, swim, fly, drip and grow through various layers of reality, spirituality and data analysis. Her narrative installations reject the tidy, toxic logic of scarcity models, suggesting powerful alternatives in collective storytelling, collective ownership, collective re-valuing of biospecies and collective commitments to sustainable environmental practices over time.
While in residence at Seattle University Williams that created 2 dynamic art installations that included prints, paintings and sculptures made of primarily recycled or reused materials. These participatory exhibitions were free and open to the public.
- Seattle University, Hedreen Gallery 2019
Carol earned the Rachels Network Catalyst Finalist Award (2020) and the Cornish Fine Art College, Neddy Finalist Award (2020), The Office of Arts and Culture Artist Up Mentorily Scholarship (2021), Residency in Berlin, Germany (2021) and the 4Culture Conductive Garboil Award (2018), an Artist Residency AADK Spain (2018), a 4Culture Artist Community Grant Award (2017) and was accepted to Seattle Office of Arts & Culture’s Public Art Boot Camp (2018).
She is the owner of K-Love 4 Art, co-founder of both Race & Climate Justice Art Collective and ARTifACTS, and the Co-Executive Director at Community Arts Create. She was accepted into both the Environmental Leadership Program, a yearlong national fellowship to support emerging leaders in environmental justice, Interweave, Sustainable Seattle's (S2) support, mentorship and fiscal sponsor for the BIPOC Sustainable Tiny Art House Community Campaign.
'A large body of my work deals with environmentalism, PNW conifers, old growth trees, endangered animals and climate change.
~ Carol Rashawnna Williams