Critics PageJuly/August 2022

Abbey Williams and Patty Chang

We are using a lexicon as an organizing principle and have placed your works under W for We
—
We brings to mind Fred Moten referring to Eduard Glissant’s phrase “to consent not to be a single being” as “essentially a maternal relation.” His maternal refers to “the possibility of a general socialization of the maternal”.
The maternal is always more than one, when one becomes a mother, there is a feeling of always being for multiple.
"We" has been so over/misused.
There are a lot of We’s
We as women.
We as mothers.
We as artists.
We as POC.
We as beings.
We as entanglement.
We is not always true—detachment has to happen and it is slow. The mothering job is also the slow cleave for the sake of everyone’s sanity, which is a long process. Or is cleaving on the part of the child? Does mother even feel like one’s own self? Is it a temporary state or is it forever?
In our work as non-studio artists, the work involves researching, reading, watching, listening, living, feeling, amassing, connecting. By the time you’re standing on something, you barely have anything.

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Abbey Williams, Composite of screenshots from Reprise, 2021, Digital with sound, TRT 6:48. Courtesy the artist.

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Patty Chang, Composite of screenshots from We Are All Mothers, 2022 Digital with sound, TRT: 20:02. Courtesy the artist. Images by Aleksija Neimanis. These images (photographs, film) were taken in the context of a national disease surveillance program in which found dead animals are examined to determine cause of death and to contribute to the health of living populations. The views expressed in this artwork does not necessarily express the views of the National Veterinary Institute, SVA.

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