For Pel, Zoe Williams’ second solo show at Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris, the London-based artist has created a new moving-image work and a soundtrack that give the title to the exhibition. The piece is intended to function as a texture of sensual experience, conveying eroticism, anxiety and nausea; it evokes the paranoid eye of a late night encounter or the fitful scanning of unobtainable items in a jewelry store window. Williams is fascinated by the intimacy of delicate and precious things: gems and tiny artifacts are transfigured by the artist through the use of the macro lens. The viewers are invited to watch the film amongst furs and cigarettes on a blue carpet, accompanied by a mix of strong perfume, cognac and slowly souring cream. Williams’ works address ideas of seduction, sensuality and transgression; with Pel Williams creates a tension between the polarities of the animate and the inanimate, the seductive and the repulsive, examining contemporary notions of taste, sexuality and beauty. The soundtrack for Pel is a new commission from London-based musician and artist Jack Brennan.
Pel by Zoe Williams
Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris
Through January 21