Photo by Paul Salveson
The resilience of plants and of the spirit are demonstrated in “A Field,” at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU through Aug. 1, 2021. Kandis Williams, a Los Angeles-based educator, writer and publisher, creates works using collage, printmaking, video and performance. The subjects are race, nationalism, authority, impressed labor and eroticism.
The third-floor True Farr Luck Gallery houses the exhibit’s greenhouse, featuring wire sculptures of plants. Rather than leaves, Williams attaches collages of archival photographs of chain gangs on Mississippi farms, images from vintage magazines and depictions of tango dancers. Williams’ video “Annexation Tango” features the fields of the former Lorton Reformatory and the Virginia State Prison Farm, where prisoners worked as a condition of their sentences.
