Ceysson & Bénétière is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Rachel Eulena Williams. This new body of work, titled Zero Gravity, challenges conventional perspectives on space, both in the formal and environmental connotations of the word.
In an alternative handling of painting materials, Williams challenges the physical and traditional forms of both painting and its presentation. Canvases are sewn, deconstructed and full of moments implying sculptural elements. Rope is transformed and manipulated to visually and structurally hold together un-stretched paintings while simultaneoulsy functioning formally as line. The image creating processes imply a power of movement and creation that continue on the canvas even after the physical action of construction has been completed. Similarly, and just as immediate, is the visible dismantling of the pieces. The full history of these paintings are present, both past and future exist on the same plane and it is impossible to tell which is which. Drawing, painting and sculpture connect retracing abstraction in image, form, and action.
Within these works space can be seen not only in a compositional sense but also as a setting. Driven by the desire to challenge the often limited depictions of outer space as a dead place outside of nature, in these paintings Williams’s use of metallics and earth tones present an environment that while foreign, is not cold or vacant. In the constant construction of new forms, which always also seem to be disassembling and changing, these paintings call to mind not only a dismantling of the traditional form of painting but of traditional imaginings of earths destruction. Williams’s paintings present us with an understanding that destruction is not an end to creation but is inseparable from it.
Written by Valerie Kamen
