A nude figure with frazzled hair lies in bed, the sickly colored linens draped across their upper body. Fingertips glowing red as if inflamed, the character grasps a navy phone and stares catatonically at the screen. A vibrant infinity symbol is superimposed on the scene, emerging as endless loops of energy and mesmerization from the device.
The all-too-relatable portrait is part of a suite of new works by capturing the omnipotent techno-dystopia we’re collectively barreling toward. Extrapolating on the ways humanity and machines merge, the Brooklyn-based artist presents a mystical vision of another world infused with pop culture and art history.
“The Merminator,” for example, combines two characters of the ’80s—a cyborg assassin and a Disney princess—to form a metallic bot perched on a stone as it, like Ariel, peers toward a world it presumably longs to be part of and yet won’t be accepted in.
There’s also “I Am Not a Robot,” a symmetric piece that takes cues in composition and color palette from the spiritualist abstractions of . The painting also draws from Boticelli’s “,” which presents the titular fruit as a visual metaphor for the human heart. In Williams’ iteration, though, the subject is the phone, radiating outward in place of the life-giving source.
Under the fitting title Act Natural, the body of work plunges into the uncanny without settling into the strange state of things. The too-sleek, frictionless world the artist portrays exudes the allure of technology alongside the immense horror it elicits.
presents Act Natural as a pop-up at Frieze’s No. 9 Cork Street in London, where it’s on view through October 24. Explore more of Williams’ work on .
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