{"title":"Christopher Williams","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"angola-to-vietnam","title":"Angola to Vietnam","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat initially appear to be herbarium photographs of rare flowers are, on closer inspection, images of glass botanical models made to scale by the Czech father-and-son glass artists Leopold Blaschka (1822–1895) and Rudolf Blaschka (1857–1939). Their renowned collection of glass flowers preserved at Harvard Museum of Natural History is among the institution’s most celebrated treasures.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDrawing from Harvard’s sculptural plants, Christopher Williams reorders the collection’s botanical classification according to national origin, selecting twenty-seven specimens corresponding to countries identified by Amnesty International as sites where enforced disappearance was used as a tool of political repression. Each photograph is accompanied by a label combining taxonomic descriptions of the plant with information about the photographic composition.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBy replacing botanical taxonomy with geopolitical classification, Williams introduces a sociopolitical dimension into the representation of nature. “From Angola to Vietnam” examines how systems of knowledge and classification can reveal histories of violence and state control. The book concludes with a twenty-eighth plate: an uncanny reproduction of the cover of the French edition of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eElle\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, dated 15 August 1988. Depicting models from around the world arranged like a bouquet of national identities, each figure is marked by a sailor-style hat bearing their country of origin. The image extends Williams’s interrogation of classification, representation, and the relationship between national identity and visual culture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54055554449747,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/AngolaToVietnam.png?v=1782028375"},{"product_id":"supplements-models-prototypes","title":"Supplements, models, prototypes","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublished on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, in 2017, \u003cem\u003eModels, Supplements, Prototypes\u003c\/em\u003e investigates how temporary exhibition walls and spatial design influence our perception of photographic art. Developed through an engagement with the form of the “open letter” as a means of giving public form to private discourse, the project explores photography, exhibition architecture, and image production through collages, installations, and architectural display structures.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe accompanying publication opens with a letter to Marcel Raymond, in which the artist describes returning to the studio to take stock of his tools, materials, and working methods. He proposes\u003cem\u003e Program A\u003c\/em\u003e, a project devoted to collecting and studying images of the camera itself: gathering periodicals on photographic technology and camera collecting, then excising and reassembling images charting the development of lightweight cameras onto standard sheets using simple analogue tools: scissors, X-Acto blades, tape, pencil, acid-free paper, and cardstock. He frames this meticulous, archival activity as a means of using accumulated images and characters to develop new methods of seeing and thinking, ultimately seeking to “reclaim duration” – time for reflection that can redefine the present and enable action. The letter closes by questioning whether such a careful, twentieth-century-focused practice might amount to little more than an exercise in stylistic nostalgia.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe letter is followed by a critical essay by John Corbett and dozens of blank green pages, interspersed with clippings from IKEA catalogues that occasionally “furnish” the conceptual void that translates the exhibition space into a book format.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat same year, William’s exhibition project was adapted, with slight variations, for presentations at ETH Zurich and the Triennale di Milano.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Metabooks","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54745355125075,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1068\/8898\/6963\/files\/DSC4545.png?v=1787818151"}],"url":"https:\/\/metabooks.art\/collections\/christopher-williams.oembed","provider":"Metabooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}