Zoe Williams:
Seasons in Hell
EXHIBITION
26/09 - 03/11
Museum of Contemporary Art
Grand Opening: 26/09 at 20:00
Curators: Barbara Gregov, Lovro Japundžić, Lea Vene
Throughout each of these chapters, the artist has created an evolving ‘script’, dramatising interactions between set, body and object and ultimately the viewer, intertwining her key concerns around notions of power, desire, artifice, and consumption. These recurring themes and objects are imbued with a sense of theatricality inherent to the artist’s work, which turns the spaces they inhabit into stages for the intimate psychodramas that may or may not occur. The dramaturgy builds on a prolonged tension, the dynamic interplay between sensuality and repulsion, and a teasing anticipation, with desires seeming to linger just on the verge of fulfillment.
Seasons in Hell represents the final, declining act of the trilogy, capturing the slow decay of once decadent interiors and intimate selves. It seems to hint at the aftermath of dramatic events whose characters have vanished, yet their heady presence remains palpable in the space, transfigured into objects, scent and sound. The overall ambiance is simultaneously dark, theatrical, intoxicating, and eerie.
A dim, putrid-green light bathes the walls, while a haunting, at points overtly romantic soundtrack fills the room blending with a sweet, cloying musky scent. These elements insidiously creep into our ears and nostrils, heightening the sense of nausea, sickness, and decay lingering in the room. Our gaze is drawn to the room’s centerpiece: a seemingly lavish bed framed with luxurious satin curtains and eroticaly charged Polaroid prints. The scene is set for an intimate melodrama that seems to have already unfolded amid the stained dusk-mauve satin sheets. It is unclear if we are witnessing the remains of a solitary malaise, the aftermath of a lovers tryst or something altogether more sinister. Scattered throughout the vast space are lavishly grotesque ceramic sculptures, like strange clues or characters themselves. There are candy-colored piss pots, melting Rococo-styled shoes and boots, platters of disfigured body parts, blind mirrors, and unseeing eyes— all relics of repressed or unfulfilled desires, petrified smears of intention.
Zoe Williams’ solitary stage vividly captures fragments of intimacy — intense connections, permeable boundaries, smudges, and leakages—both literal and metaphorical—teetering on the fine line between fusion and contamination. It also witnesses painful disenchantment, loss, and alienation, with a crumbling melancholy that is overwhelming as much as it is unbearable.
Afterword:
Fondant, the exhibition and body of work that Seasons in Hell stems from, was a solo exhibition curated by and developed with the late Vincent Honoré and produced by Fræme, at Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, 2023. Vincent Honoré tragically passed away in November 2023. Williams wishes to dedicate this exhibition to his memory and thank him for his support, vision and incredible generosity of spirit. Vincent was a long term supporter and collaborator to Williams, they first began to work together in 2015, and worked together on a total of 6 projects over the 8 years.
CREDITS:
Music: Fondant original score composed and performed by Vindicatrix
Scent: Carole Calvez, olfactory designer
Ceramics made at Studio Ernan Design, Albisola
All works courtesy of Ciaccia Levi, Paris-Milan and the artist.