Moses Williams: Parable Bodies

Parable Bodies considers the relationship between “living and non-living entities,” questioning anthropocentric ideals by positioning human and non-human bodies in a reciprocal exchange that emphasizes interconnectedness. Through this body of work, Moses Williams complicates the idea that nonhuman life and matter are lesser than and always the object in relation to the human subject.

Referencing deserts, mountains, plants, human and non-human creatures, Parable Bodies presents a world of entities that are not separate but rather exist in a relational web where “slippage, entanglement, and influence” occur between all materials (matter). The sculptural works are at once familiar and uncanny, evoking a sense of ritualistic intent in their presentation. The sculptural materials are tactile, lustrous, visceral, and inherently emotive.

In the video Last Walker, a traveler negotiates vast landscapes and unfamiliar territories. Guided by ceremony and contemplation, the traveler acquires sustenance through the perseverance to wander. Meawhile, Williams’s sculptural works function as potential markers or stations on this journey. Though static, they suggest movement, metamorphosis, and the constancy of change, emphasizing the enigmatic complexity of all entities.

“The dimension and scale of the sculptural forms are considered in specific relation to the viewer and their experience of the forms in space. The surfaces of the sculptures are given great attention; they are not concrete, impenetrable barriers but rather porous, mutable, transitory skins clothing unique entities. As material bodies, they may merge into and/or pass through one another. They are many things at once: conceptual, physical, energetic, and spiritual.”  —Moses Williams