Jade Williams

Lives and works in Chicago, IL, USA

Artist statement

As an interdisciplinary artist and designer, my practice reflects the ways that I engage in the radical traditions of adorning, collecting, clustering, and congregating. Each of these meditative actions possess a transformative quality– making them powerful vehicles for space-making, care-taking; and, when performed routinely, healing rituals. Using an alchemic combination of hair, gold hoops, acrylic nails, textiles, and reflective surfaces, my works are heavily influenced by the 1970’s/80s, NOLA culture, and my matrilineal line. Notions of the metaphysical, the spiritual, the speculative and the surreal are grounded in my practice as I explore the ways I, as Black Women, have the agency to claim, create, and convert the spaces I desire. Through my installations, surface designs, material manipulations, and sculptural objects, I investigate my personal narrative through a sensationalized lens as grounds for building an ideal world for my younger and future selves.

Artwork