AuthorJacquiPalumbo, CNN
When Dangero Label Williams kissed his ex-partner Glenn in front of the camera, his face was hidden by a black silk cloth of Duragu facing backwards, so the photographer I was drawing a famous picture. Mind.
A non-binary Mississippi-born New York-based artist has always loved the surrealist art born of the turmoil of World War I. When they staged the photo, they thought of a simple mind. A shape formed by a person from Rene Magritte's original painting "The Lovers". In the 1928 composition, in a parable of discontinuity and admiration, a Belgian artist portrayed a close-up of a couple sharing an intimate kiss. Their heads were completely wrapped in a white cloth.
In the Williams image of the same name, the element retains unexpected romanticism. The two faces of the profile are joined, but separated by a layer of cloth set in a background with few features. However, the drama is emphasized in this image. Williams and Glen hold each other's faces with a scorching desire gesture, which is the bed frame visible behind them.
And there is the figure itself. There is a couple of black queers in the front and in the center, wearing head wraps that symbolize the beauty and culture of black.
"I stuck to making this (about) explicit love for black queer men, but for the general situation of many black men, they are. I tried to lay the groundwork, whether or not. It's weird, "Williams told CNN Style in a telephone interview. "Men are ashamed to express emotions and intimacy with anyone," they added.
When Williams took a picture in 2017, they studied for a master's degree in fine art photography at Syracuse University and developed a visual language for deep and exciting self-portraits. rice field. Images exhibited at their first gallery show at Higher Pictures in New York City before they graduated. It is now included in their first book, Contact High, published in early July. Among them, Williams's "lover" is intentionally small and intimate on the page, and has only been one of many images in Williams' archives that have shaped their poetic world ever since.
Over the last 50 years, Williams' work has become an extensive quest for the bond between himself and his relationships. Their photographs, often featuring family and friends, are eerie, spiritually meticulously staged portraits that walk the line between reality and art.
"Our gender is performance. Our sexuality is performance. Our life is performance, whether people see it or not," Williams explained. "So performance is definitely part of (my) work."
Touch is a binding element to all their work as it is gripped, pulled and caressed. But there is also. In one photo, Glenn shave Williams' chin line, holding the artist's head in one hand and approaching the razor with the other. In another example, Williams and his father are both naked, clasping each other's hands tightly and leaning against each other to form an inverted triangle. This also hints at the tension of the "lover" and shows the closeness and distance of intimate relationships. All at once.
Through "Contact High," Williams' work explores not only the romantic variety, but also the many forms in which we experience love. "Yes, I advocate sexual freedom, and I also support the idea that there is no unstigmatized intimacy between lovers, friends and family," they said. rice field. "There is an image of my black parents loving their black weird kid at work."
And Williams' work may have hints of artistic traditions. But the gestures of the Renaissance hands, the distorted body of surrealism photography, the everyday story of a relative of a black figurative artist-photographers are away from most direct references. They focus on their own stories rather than changing the stories of others.
"I didn't want to keep destroying the artist's image throughout history to make my work," they said, especially black and brown artists telling their stories. For much of art history, given that it "did not rule".
"I'm the only one doing my job," they added. "And I'm the only one who can tell the truth to my work," they added.
Image above: "The Lovers, 2017".
