A JAR video series 2010

23 videos
1 hour, 53 min, 28sec
Edition of 7

A Jar is Williams' second video collection with Open Gallery; Part two of the artist's enquiry into the boundary between the built and natural environment. The series of works presents this border through a poetic exploration of the window, door and most pertinently the hinge. These everyday architectural features are used to expose the play between an internal domestic space and an external natural ‘wilderness’, whilst the absence of a human subject engulfs each image.

Daydreaming in the Office is a good example of this competition. Plant life is seen overlaid on buildings - twisting its way through windows and casting geometric shadows on a building which has lost its previous expression of ornament.

Williams succeeds again in delicately portraying the supposed foe of the natural world as a patient, steady and unyieldingly permanent force. However, the study is taken a step further, the reflective surface of the window is exploited to create movement, changing compositions and optical illusions within the fixed pictorial frame; surface and light playing a key role in the drama throughout the collection.