{"id":12026,"date":"2023-11-09T11:19:01","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T10:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingkong-mag.com\/?p=12026"},"modified":"2023-11-24T10:05:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T09:05:48","slug":"claire-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kingkong-mag.com\/en\/claire-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire Williams, in liaison with the invisible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nSound, textile, electronics. By means of the media she is particularly partial to, the artist Claire Williams renders electromagnetic waves material and explores our relationship with imperceptible universes. Fluctuating between the cosmos and our magnetosphere, her installations and her contribution as an artist researcher establish links between the formal, occult and experimental sciences. \n\r\n<\/p>\n\n\n

Before meeting her in the flesh at the KIKK Festival, where she was on hand to present her installation “Les T\u00e9l\u00e9pathes” – to which we’ll return a few lines below – it’s with Claire Williams’ electromagnetic double that we connect through our screen. A graduate of a Master’s degree in Textile Design at La Cambre, Brussels, and the Fresnoy Studio national des arts contemporains in Tourcoing, the artist is currently pursuing a research project on the experimental and occult sciences of the 19th century entitled “Les Aethers”, in collaboration with Dvora Levy. “It was in the second half of the 19th century that the invisible began to be considered. Chemists, physicists, mediums and other scientists immersed themselves in this medium, which some called “ether” and others “fluid”. They spoke of cosmic energies, spirits, vital plant flows\u2026 These scientists then devised devices to detect and harness these forces, from the telegraph to the stereometer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On either side of the border, we trace between sciences and non-sciences, these researchers into the invisible were driven by the same ambition: to reveal an unknown world. To succeed in their goal, it was necessary to share concepts and exchange ideas, a lot of them. And, surprise, surprise, in this abundant ensemble of scholarship, we find a large number of women. They came together in collectives, bringing to light another connection to the body, a more qualitative than quantitative approach to the theories explored. In her research work, Claire Williams is also endeavouring to study and recontextualise the contribution these women made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking history in the eye<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, at the request of the curator of The Missing Page<\/em><\/a> exhibition, held at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris, she wrote a page inserted into the Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopaedia<\/em><\/a>. On her portfolio, the Brussels-based artist writes in regard to this: \u2018in flicking through scientific encyclopaedias, and the history of telecommunications more specifically, a simple CTRL + F is enough to show the contribution of women to this domain. The \u201cMrs, Madams, women\u2026\u201d only point to two or three occurrences amongst the hundreds of pages leafed through. They generally refer to the wife of an eminent scientist or to a generous patron. Sometimes it is the name of a transatlantic cable named in honour of the wives of the engineers who installed them. In short, these stories do not talk of the women who contributed to shaping our current electromagnetic landscape. I therefore wrote a page dedicated to them in order to once again include them in our history. Apart from what they have bequeathed us in Western technological history, it is perhaps another form of science they are offering us, a science which we may term queer*.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Exhibition La page manquante, Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, Paris 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Never far from textile, making use of handicraft processes but also of electronics, her artistic practice tends towards freeing itself from dominant practices within militant and (cyber)feminist spaces. Her commitment to highlighting the heritage of women scientists forgotten by the majority is supported by a single overarching question: \u2018what were the technological dreams of these researchers?\u2019 Claire Williams puts forward the hypothesis that with our computers and our smartphones, we have all finally become mediums. All our modern technologies irrefutably have us journeying kilometres through an imperceptible dimension. So many millions of spirits roaming around us, at times endlessly. An apocalyptic vision for some, fascinating for others. In her installation, \u2018Les T\u00e9l\u00e9pathes<\/em>\u2019, which she presented at the Capture #2<\/a> exhibition, at the Pavillon, the artist for that matter explores the materiality of our consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In \u2018Les T\u00e9l\u00e9pathes\u2019, I wanted to create an interface which immerses us in another state of consciousness. And, while we are at it, in the longest phase of adapted consciousness, in other words, a deep coma.<\/p>\nClaire Williams<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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