Kiyan Williams
Flag Fry Video by Kiyan Williams
Wednesday, Nov 25
12pm EST
On the eve of Thanksgiving, tune in to view a new video by Kiyan Williams featuring the work, How Do You Properly Fry An American Flag. This process and performance of cooking the flag, an ongoing series Williams began during quarantine in July of 2020, harkens back to the artist’s high school experience raising and lowering the flag atop the U.S. Capitol during their time as a Page for the House of Representatives. Today, Williams works exclusively with flags previously flown at government buildings in Washington D.C. The artist’s physical manipulation of the iconic object visually and conceptually transforms the flag into a deliciously grotesque, bubbling and charred sculpture. Amid sizzling sounds and smoky aromas, this multi-sensory and highly tactile process of touching and rubbing the flag with flour and seasoning speaks to the physical care and complete transformation of the culinary process. We invite you to view this video in the Thanksgiving holiday season and to reflect on national mythologies, food culture, and consumption.
Image above: Kiyan Williams, How Do You Properly Fry An American Flag (Study 2), 2020, nylon flag flown over the U.S. Capitol Building deep-fried in oil, flour, salt, and paprika on vellum, flag dimensions: 4 x 6 inches (10.2 x 15.2 cm), Image courtesy the artist and David Kordansky Gallery.
Video: Kiyan Williams, How Do You Properly Fry An American Flag (Excerpt)
Kiyan Williams is a multidisciplinary artist from Newark, NJ who works fluidly across sculpture, performance, and video. Williams earned a BA with honors from Stanford University and an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University. Their work has been exhibited at SculptureCenter, The Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, David Kordansky Gallery, and The Shed. They have given artist talks and lectures at The Guggenheim, the Hirshhorn Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Princeton University, Stanford University, Portland State University, and Pratt Institute. Williams’ work is in private and public collections including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Williams’ honors and awards include the Astraea Foundation Global Arts Fund and Stanford Arts Award. They were selected to participate in the 2019 In Practice: Other Objects emerging artist exhibition at SculptureCenter and are among the inaugural cohort of artists commissioned by The Shed. Williams was previously an artist fellow at Leslie-Lohman Museum and is an alum of the EMERGENYC fellowship at the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics at NYU. Williams is the recipient of the 2019/2020 Fountainhead Fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Kiyan Williams, How Do You Properly Fry An American Flag (Study 1), 2020, nylon flag flown over the U.S. Capitol Building deep-fried in oil, flour, salt, and paprika on vellum, flag dimensions: 4 x 6 inches (10.2 x 15.2 cm), Image courtesy the artist and David Kordansky Gallery.