NYAB Event - Kelli Williams "Scala Naturae"

Kelli Williams "Scala Naturae"

Koenig & Clinton

This event has ended.

In the words of the artist:
“Hatred is an underrated emotion. Operating with the belief that the world is an unjust place polluted by ancient, religious delusion and it isn't my job to decorate it, I made this show to examine the centuries old belief in the Scala Naturae or Great Chain of Being. In its various permutations it is one of the most pernicious of social hierarchies and systems of religious belief, which ordered all living things in a divine, regimented social order. Originating with Aristotle it became codified within Christianity with angels and deity at the top followed by a careful ranking of humans of various races, animals, plant life and minerals at the bottom. It persisted throughout the Enlightenment and early Lamarckian models of evolution before finally being replaced by the Darwinian model of organizing living things based on their physical not spiritual characteristics. A key facet of this system of belief was the view that it must be static and unchanging and that no part could be damaged or undermined or the entire chain would break. In my small but sincere way I've attempted to chip away at hierarchy by corrupting the tropes of religious art like the Instruments of the Passion and the Hand of Fatima. By depicting serraglios and harems as well as spiritualized masochism I'm mocking Islamic and Christian fables. By depicting 60's hippies and forms of natural purification like high colonics I'm mocking nature worship. This show is intended as a malicious, anti-theistic attack on social and natural order and prostration to higher powers and collective identities as well as an examination of the clash of belief systems and the anxiety underlying teleology and classification.”