Pieces by Ash Eliza Williams are displayed in “Wonder and Awe” in Strohl Art Center’s Bellowe Family Gallery. The exhibition opens this weekend and runs through Aug. 20.
Through studying non-human communication, Ash Eliza Williams found a vocabulary to connect with others through art.
Their art explores the natural world, portraying mystifying creatures and beings in natural settings. Bright, vibrant tones complement natural surroundings to create captivating and otherworldly compositions.
“Anteater at Night”
When Williams was young, they said that they weren’t surrounded by lots of art, but immersed themselves in nature and found a lifelong relationship between art and the natural world.
“I was surrounded by a lot of nature, and so I think my first interactions with art are kind of looking at creatures,” Williams said.
Williams said that they were “paralyzingly shy” as a child, and struggled to connect with other people at a young age. Through their interest in art, they found themselves captivated by the natural world and, particularly, by the non-verbal and non-human forms of communication happening therein.
“(I) became really interested in other forms of language and other forms of connection, and that led to being curious about the ways that trees talk to each other, and the ways that snails talk to each other, and the ways that bioluminescent creatures bioluminesce at each other — in part because I was envious of the way that other creatures could speak without using human language — and also because I wanted to listen to quiet creatures and overlooked creatures,” they said.
“Ghost Moth”
For Williams, the pieces are used as an alternative form of non-verbal communication, much like the creatures being depicted in the works. They said that because they grew up as a quiet person who struggled to connect, the practice of studying creatures led to reflection on different ways of communicating and how that could be brought into their own practice.
“I started studying these creatures and making paintings about these creatures, thinking about communication attempts between sculpture and paintings, like ways of illustrating how we connect with each other — whether that’s an introverted sculpture, an extroverted painting sitting next to each other and trying to have a conversation,” Williams said. “I started using paintings and sculptures as a stand-in for human relationships and creaturely relationships and the desire to connect and understand — and how hard that can be and how beautiful that can be.”
The Institution’s upcoming Week Seven theme of “Wonder and Awe” aptly fits Williams’ solo exhibition, titled the same and curated by Associate Director of CVA Galleries Erika Diamond, which is on view starting this weekend in the Bellowe Family Gallery of the Strohl Art Center. There will be an opening reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday in Strohl, with the artist present.
Williams said that wonderment in nature is one of the reasons that being a creature on this planet is such a good thing.
“I think wonderment is one of the things that encourages us to protect things,” they said. “Wonderment and delight keep us going and drive us to take care of each other and the natural world.”
They’re curious about people enamored with the natural world, or one specific species.
“Certain people will spend their whole lives studying and trying to understand one creature,” they said. “I think that’s a beautiful thing about humans.”
When Chautauquans leave the exhibition, Williams hopes that they will depart with a sense of curiosity about the world and a more conscious understanding about relationships with all life forms. Big and small creatures alike are important to Williams, so they hope people will take the time to think about how to better foster relationships.
“I hope that people think about relationships: their relationship with a lichen, and also their relationship with the person who they came to the show with — and what those relationships could look like or feel like — and how we can learn from other beings about how to form better human relationships,” they said. “I hope that when people come to an art show, they’re curious about it and that leads them to be more curious about other beings in the world, too.”
